5 Steps of Zero-to-One Stories
When answering a Zero-to-One (0-1) product story we need to narrow in on two key points: The key takeaway and the five steps of any zero-to-one product. In this article, I will walk you through a framework for thinking about your zero-to-one experiences and how to tell your stories to others.
The items we discuss here will likely to too much for an interview, but you want to map out the answer before editing as you may need to share different things with different companies.
Key Takeaway
This concept is core to any behavioral response. What is the introclusion? What do you want the listener to takeaway from this story. In the case of zero-to-one stories, is your product a great example of a certain type:
Startup’s First Product
Tech-Enabled company’s First Software Product
Finding a Problem in the Data (quant or qual)
Result of Regular Annual Planning
Intrapreneurship at a Big Company*
Or do you want to showcase a particular skill or win?
Ability to Successfully Advocate for a Risky Plan
Turned Around a Product/Team with New Product
First-of-Its-Kind Product
Motivating and Guiding a Team
Building at Scale
Pivoting Company
Unique implementation of X Technology
X% Increase in Revenue or Market Share for the Company
and the list goes on…
You want to pick something that resonates with what the recruiter told you the hiring manager was looking for.
The Five Steps
Typically an interviewer is looking to understand how you went from nothing to something.
Five Stages of Zero-to-One Products
Problem Identification
The Plan
Execute
GTM
Launch
Let’s Dive into Each One
Problem Identification
How did you identify the opportunity?
How did you win approval/support?
What were the biggest insights?
What was the biggest challenge?
The Plan
What was your approach?
How did you change it as you went along?
Execute
How long did it take?
What were your biggest challenges?
GTM
Who did you target?
Did your plan work?
How did you have to modify or tweak it?
Launch
Was it successful?
Did you learn but have to turn it down?
Or perhaps you pivoted because it failed when you marketed it?
Note: If you had to cancel after you ran experiments, this is not a zero-to-one success, save it for a failure story.
The Learnings
Be ready to answer:
What went wrong?
What would you do differently?
What was your greatest learning?
If you didn’t start out your story with this or pepper it throughout your storytelling, be ready to answer this as a follow-up question.
A Template
Struggling to get started? Try this Google Doc template to start thinking through your answers.
* Google’s 20% time off allows for more organic finding of ideas, Meta used to have a team that did nothing but focus on new ideas, this is slightly different. One leads to more unique ideas, the other is or about staying competitive, looking to make existing ideas work in a different environment.
