If you’re working on a sizeable project, you have a lot of time and money at risk. You want to test your ideas and final vision along the way. But, being overly confident too early in the game is a common downfall, even for the most sophisticated tech projects.
Before you find yourself too deep into development to adjust for your potential market, watch this video and learn some valuable tips that are sure to protect you from the most common pitfalls.
Video Transcript:
Big Assumptions for a Tech Startup Business
What is the biggest assumption that I am making? What is the biggest thing that needs to be true for my tech business to succeed? Let me give you some examples.
Will people buy it at all? A lot of times, people only discover whether people are going to buy something after they’ve spent massive amounts on R&D to actually bring it into the market.
Can I effectively reach my market? Just because one person you happen to know will buy it… Access to your market is a problem. There are many great products that squander in obscurity.
Will my customers’ staff use it? I see this in Business to Business scenarios where two business owners will sit down and have a conversation. I can think of half a dozen people in this room which this is an issue for because you know you can sell it to another business owner. But the challenge is will their staff adopt the technology? Will they be happy to use it?
So it can be good to go to a business owner level but it can also be good to go to a key employee level and get some feedback at that level. Ultimately there are lots of things I as a business owner have brought in and I’ve given up on because my staff didn’t engage with it.
And can we do this hard technical thing? For a small percentage of projects there is a technical risk. I think in most cases this is not the risk. I know that David over here runs a business that does the most incredible software development and does some really hard things. So proving their technical capacity is important. But most times proving the market is the bigger game.
The second great question is what is the fastest way to test my biggest assumption? And fast is important. I don’t want tests that take six months to find out. I want tests that I can run and know things this week. If we thought along those lines we would radically improve the rates of successes particularly in the online space.
Before you go too far in spending on a technical project, make sure you have all the data you need. It is better to find out whether your product is on the mark before spending a fortune in R & D only to find that no one truly shares your vision for success. By checking with workers on the team and getting feedback at multiple levels, you may find that you have been vastly overestimating the potential of your design. Plan for success by learning as much about your project as you can from every perspective before you fully spend your resources.
If you are interested in making the best decisions for your hi-tech projects, we’d love to help. Contact us today for more details.