Every startup goes through four repetitive phases: research, development, measurement and learning. ... [+]
Launching a successful startup is like a game with one rule: you must build a product people need and pay for, or you lose. There’s no right answer or set path, and the sky is the limit for how you want to accomplish this goal. How would you proceed?
You start by doing your homework. Business education is important because it provides you with the tools, frameworks, methodologies and success stories that can help you choose and follow a path to market with a higher probability of success. Education is the best risk minimization and success maximization channel. Here’s a summary that can help you win in this game.
Every startup goes through four repetitive phases: research, development, measurement and learning. In the research phase, your goal is to gather as much information as possible about the customer, their needs and expectations. It’s the first opportunity to answer your most important question: Do they need my solution and will they pay for it? This phase is the best time to make cheap mistakes before moving to the development phase.
The development phase is where we see the biggest difference in the execution approach based on the nature of the product (software or hardware), entrepreneurs’ idea, experience and risk taking. Development methodologies can be classified into two categories:
A structured development methodology follows a sequential process. This is when you use customer insights from the research phase to create a clear and well-documented development plan with specific deliverables. The development team will then use the plan to build the product and once it’s live, it can be tested by customers.
You’d be following a structured development methodology if you say, people will use my product if I carefully research the market, learn what customers want from a new solution and make sure I build a good product.
Unlike structured development, in an agile methodology, development and testing are concurrent. It’s a flexible approach characterized by continuous iteration, incremental progress and customer involvement in the development cycle.
You’d be following an agile methodology if you say, people will use my product if I carefully research the market, learn what customers want from a new solution and divide product development into smaller and quick releases while involving the customer to make sure the product is moving in the right direction.
Every startup will iterate or pivot at some point in its journey. Both methodologies are followed by a measurement and learning stage to evaluate progress and define the next phase of development. Did you know that YouTube started as a video-based dating platform? Groupon started as a social good fundraising site. Instagram was a Foursquare-like app, and believe it or not, Samsung started as a dried fish trading business.
So, how do you want to launch your startup app idea? Would you do your initial research, build and release an advanced product or launch small versions quickly, and progressively build a complete solution? What would you do if you had a $100,000 investment and only three months to launch a useful product worthy of customers’ money?
There’s no right answer. If executed correctly, both methodologies will take you to your destination. The only essential ingredient to a successful launch is a product people need. If you build a product customers want, quality won’t make a big difference in their adoption of your solution. If it solves a problem, people will use it even if it works OK, at least in the early stages. Therefore, if you want to win at this game, the question is not how to launch a startup product, but what product to launch.
