By Peter Hanschke
Welcome to the second post on my journey toward building a mobile app. In my last post, I talked about why I decided to write my own app. In a nutshell, I’ve never had the opportunity to product manage myself through the process of app development, so I thought this would be an interesting exercise. I don’t plan on revealing the nature of my app until the last post, so, until then, I’m charting the process along the way.
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By Peter Hanschke
For many years now I’ve been writing blogs about all things product management. I’m not sure that there is a subject I haven’t talked about. I found that the majority of topics came from my interactions with software companies — large, small, new — as well as conversations with people who have ideas, but are not sure where to begin.
As a product manager, I routinely asked myself what gives me the right to advise companies and individuals on what they should do. It boils down to having been through so many product management experiences in the past 20+ years of being a product manager that there really isn’t anything I haven’t seen.
There is, however, one scenario that I have not experienced. That is, me advising me on building an app – a mobile app, to be exact. I’ve always advised others as they plan and build out their software applications. I’ve talked to some people who have an idea of what they want to do; some who have a full-fledged idea and are well on their way; and some who have been at it a while and need some help on their next product move.
But I have never advised myself as I go through the planning, building and commercialization of an idea for a mobile app. It kind of feels like I’ll be eating my own dog food!
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By Peter Hanschke
I was a panelist at the latest Agile Ottawa meeting where we discussed our experiences with the process and concepts of Eric Ries‘ lean startup methodology. Today, I will share some of the points I made during the discussions.
By the time I got to reading Eric’s book, I was well on my way to using and advising clients and my employers on many of his teachings. Even though he focuses on startups, the principles in general are applicable to larger companies that need to bring new products to market with little investment. Note that larger companies have other challenges to successfully introduce new products quickly with little investment — Clayton Christensen‘s book The Innovator’s Dilemma does a good job of outlining these challenges.
The area I want to focus on is the balance between investment, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and time to market.
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Associate Peter Hanschke is an Ottawa-based product management specialist. His post is part of our continuing series about the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market. We welcome your comments.
By Peter Hanschke
The ability to demo your product to a prospect is a key activity in the sales process. Prospects struggle to make the connection between what is shown in a slide deck and the issues that they need to address or the problems they need to solve. Furthermore, they also need to be assured that the product you are describing is simply not slide ware. A properly constructed demo that shows how the prospect can address their issues takes time and effort to create. But many companies leave the design and creation of the demo to the last possible moment. The result is the standby method– open the product, show individual features and hope that one or more of the features resonates with the prospect.
The problem is that the prospect is looking for a solution to a problem that they currently have – not a set of features.
Prospects are interested in buying your product or service only if it addresses a need or problem that they have. In today’s tight economy, products that address issues will be considered more favorably than those that are simply a collection of features. The intent of a demo is to show the capabilities of your product in such a way that resonates with the prospect. The prospect needs to truly understand how your product addresses their core issues. Upon completion of the demo, the prospect should have a clear vision of exactly how your product helps them.
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Associate Peter Hanschke is an Ottawa-based product management specialist. His post is part of our continuing series about the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market. We welcome your comments.
By Peter Hanschke
Startups begin with little to no money. Much of the early development of their product is funded by the owner, by his or her friends and maybe even by an angel. Every dollar is used wisely and focused at the topmost activity. To build the product from concept through to MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and to the point where a small number of customers can use the product, the company has one, maybe two, full- or part-time developers. In some cases the owner pitches in occasionally to help in development or testing.
Young and lean
In such an environment, drive, enthusiasm and the will to succeed fuels the development process. The product takes shape as the development iterations roll by. Occasionally more money is needed to fuel the development engine, which the owner must somehow secure. Without real customers validating the solution, it’s difficult to get significant funding to speed up the development process or build a more enriched product.
Despite the tough times at this stage of the startup, this is in fact a very desirable situation.
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By Peter Hanschke
