Great Products Consulting

Author: Great Products Consulting

  • Does your platform or app solve a problem?

    Does your platform or app solve a problem?

    Ultimately, a product or service exists to solve a problem, or it addresses a need or goal of the customer or user. Without that fundamental piece, a platform or app is doomed to failure. Understanding this is an important part of validating your idea.  This article looks at what to consider, and why it’s important to understand the problem your solving when you want to build a product.

    So, what’s the problem, need or goal?

    At the end of the day, you don’t want to spend your time and effort building something that isn’t helpful to people in some way. Whether it’s around productivity or maybe just entertainment, your platform or app has to have some purpose for people to use it.

    Generally, we talk about solving problems with products. That’s because people are driven to look for products or solutions because they’re having trouble with something. Some problems are more trivial (“I’m bored, let’s find a game to play” or “I’m hungry”) and some things aren’t (“How do I do my taxes?” or “What insurance should I buy?”). Bottom line – if there’s no problem, you’ll find it very difficult to get people to use your platform or app.

    It’s not always doom and gloom, and that’s why I like talking about needs and goals too. To me, needs and goals are a variation of a problem, but with a positive intention – if you’re looking to meet a need (“I want to learn a new skill”) or if you want to achieve a goal (“I want to book a holiday in Perth”), then you’re equally motivated to find a solution.

    Regardless, in order for it to be successful, your platform or app needs to do something useful for someone.

    Is that problem painful enough for people to seek a solution?

    Your platform or app is the solution to a person’s problem, need or goal. By using your product, your clients and customers will achieve the outcome that they’re looking for. But how painful is the problem? Is it a little itch or a full-body rash?!

    If you think about the buying process, there are generally a few steps that people go through before pulling out their wallets and purses. This means that you want to make sure that the problem you’re solving is painful enough for people to go looking for a solution. If I have a hole in my sock, do I look for a hole-fixing service or do I just buy new socks?  Conversely, if you’re talking about needs and goals, then you’re thinking about how important this is to someone.

    If you’re product is free or low cost, then it’s less of an issue as it’s low-risk for an individual to try your service or download your app. People will use it as an option for evaluating different alternatives. The challenge then falls into my next point.

    Are there enough people with the problem? And how often do people have this problem?

    I’ve combined these two questions together because they speak to how many people you need to use your platform or app. You’ve found people with problems, and they’re painful enough to look for a solution. But are there enough of them?

    Unless you’ve got a high-ticket price, volume is key to any platform or app. There are a lot of overheads to cover with a platform or app. You’re looking at 10-20% of your initial development costs to keep your systems running every year. This means there needs to be enough people with the problem to use your product, so you can pay your bills. This is a really important point. Be realistic about the number of people that you can get to sign up to your platform or app when doing your financial analysis.  This is usually where a business falls over.

    Another element of the volume equation is how often will people use your product. Problems are not all equal in importance. Some problems can be solved as a one-off (e.g. buying a present) and some happen over and over again (e.g. ordering takeaway). You can solve a problem in a minute, while others take years. If you have a subscription or membership product, then you want problems that take a while to solve. For smaller problems, you want people to keep coming back every time they encounter the problem. While it’s important to have a large number of users for your platform or app, you also need them to use it again and again.

    Why should I care?

    If you don’t first understand the problem, need or goal, then it’s no point building a solution. No one will use it. “That would be cool” is generally not a good reason for building a platform or app.

    I’d also encourage you to explore the problem. This involves thinking about how painful it is. You want to understand why people might have the problem, and what motivates them to want to solve it. If the problem you’ve identified isn’t a big deal for them, then you’ll have a tough time convincing them that you have a solution for them. This research will also help you to build a better product by making sure you address the pain.

    Finally, think about how many people this problem affects. How many of them you could realistically get to use your platform or app, and how often can you get them to use it. This is critical to the long-term success of your product. Your product may be great at what it does, but without volume and consistent use, you’ll struggle to keep it going.

    At the end of the day, products are created to solve problems, so take some time to think about the one that you want to address in order to have a successful platform or app.

    If you want to turn your good idea into a great product, then my Idea to Launch Checklist is your plain-English guide to getting there. It’s available now for only $24.

  • What is a Wireframe?

    What is a Wireframe?

    A wireframe is a drawing of a screen as it might appear on a website, an online platform or a mobile app. Wireframes are very powerful tools for describing what you want to build, and for illustrating your idea. In this article, I’ll explain the different types of wireframes and how you can use them to create your platform or app.

    On the web and on mobile apps, screen design plays a key role in how your customer and users interact with your product. These designs are usually created by user experience (UX) designers; often with the input of graphic designers (some user experience designers have visual design skills as well).

    Wireframes in Product and Software Development

    Traditionally, screens would have been envisaged in the “design” phase of the development process. Developers and designers would sit together to determine how a user will move through the application, and what the screens should look like.  However, screens can play a vital role in explaining what a product should do. As a result, screen designs are edging their way into earlier phases of the software and product development processes.

    As you’re validating your idea during the “analyse” phase of product development, wireframes can used to test your product idea. You show the screens to potential customers so they can understand what you’re trying to do and what the product might look like. The screens can even be linked together so people can ‘navigate’ through a particular feature. The feedback is invaluable in terms of seeing how people interact with your idea.  You can also get their reaction to your solution and whether it solves their problem.

    In terms of defining your product (the “define” phase of product development and the “requirements” phase of software development), wireframes are a great way to illustrate to developers what you want your product to do. In some cases, people get UX designers involved here to get some detailed wireframes outlined before starting development. However, be aware that there’s often a strong dependency between what the screen looks like versus how things work behind the scenes. In some cases, the designed screens may have some technical constraints, so you might have to re-do some of the screens at a later date.

    Types of Wireframes

    Wireframes come in different levels of detail and each one of them has different uses when creating your product:

    1. Low-fidelity wireframes

    These wireframes are hand-drawn and very high-level. They show the overall placement of content on the screen using boxes to represent areas of content, and lines to represent text. These are often used to map out what screens are required, the flow of the screens and the high-level content (e.g. picture, text, button, menu bar, etc). The idea is that you don’t want to spend too much on the detail. You’ll use these “lo-fi” wireframes in the “analyse” and “define” phases as you’re just illustrating concepts.

    2. Medium-fidelity wireframes

    Lo-fi wireframes are converted into computerised images with software tools like Sketch or Balsamiq or even basic drawing tools like PowerPoint. The high-level content is replaced with additional details – such as what type of picture will be displayed, what content will be included (e.g. contact information, user registration), etc.

    3. High-fidelity wireframes

    High-fidelity (“hi-fi”) wireframes often look like graphical representations of the actual screens. User experience designers will provide actual fields on a form (e.g. field labels, field types – calendar, drop downs, radio buttons, etc), general spacing and navigation. Graphical or visual designers will fill in the pictures, colours, font types, logos, styling etc. Items on the screen are annotated to include design and development notes (e.g. click here to go to the home page).

    The diagram below shows the level of detail in different types of wireframes:

    In many cases, people don’t bother with hand-drawing screens, go straight to the computer, and call them lo-fi wireframes. Some people will skip that step altogether, and go straight to hi-fi wireframes. It doesn’t really matter what you do – it’s more a matter of how much time and money you want to spend on it. It’s much quicker to hand-draw something rather than to put it on a computer. If you end up with multiple iterations of your screens or end up with new screens altogether, you spend less time and money doing this when you’re drawing boxes and lines versus very detailed screens.

    It’s important to remember that during “analyse” and “define/requirements” activities, wireframes should be focused on “what” rather than “how”. You don’t want to restrict your developers by telling them “how” you want something done.  Wireframes should be used to show them “what” people should be able to do, and the outcomes or benefits they expect from using your product.

    Why should you care?

    Depending on your budget and skills, you need to determine whether you want to create your wireframes or get someone to do it for you. You may want to draw low- or even medium- fidelity wireframes, and then pass them on to a designer. Alternatively, you may decide that your strengths lie elsewhere, and you hire a designer to do the wireframes from scratch. If it’s the latter, then you’ll still need to provide some guidelines to your designers, and this can be done in your product definition.  This instructs the designer on what the product should do.

    Either way, knowing how to draw wireframes, and understanding the different levels of detail are important skills to have. Pictures are a very powerful communication tool, and can be used throughout the development process to show developers what you want them to do.

    Are you ready to turn your good idea into a great product?
    My idea to launch checklist is your plain-English guide to getting there.
    It’s available now for only $24.
  • Why you shouldn’t always rely on a recommendation

    Why you shouldn’t always rely on a recommendation

    Getting a recommendation from a friend or an acquaintance is a great way to find people or things – a plumber, a builder, a lawyer, a restaurant, a product, etc. Whatever you need, someone out there has a recommendation for you. In a previous article, I talked about using referrals to find a developer, and in today’s article, I’m going expand on why you shouldn’t always rely on those recommendations – especially when money is involved. When you’re building a platform or mobile app, you need people and tools to make it real, so you need some way to find these things. This article will talk mostly about people, as it’s a lot harder to ditch them when things go wrong – that’s what makes relying on those recommendations a bit trickier.

    Not all recommendations are created equal

    The first thing to remember is that not all recommendations are created equal. It depends on where the recommendation comes from. If you ask your partner or best friend, chances are, the recommendation is going to be fairly reliable. There’s a lot at stake for the person making the recommendation. They’re not going to recommend a dud – your personal relationship is at stake. If you rely on recommendations from online groups and forums where you don’t know the person, how good can that recommendation be?

    However, knowing someone personally doesn’t guarantee success. What you know of someone personally is very different from knowing him or her in a professional capacity. I’ve talked to so many people who hired developers based on personal relationships – and most didn’t work out.

    The next thing to note is that the recommendation may not be right for you. Imagine a friend tells you about this great restaurant – “you have to go there!” she says. “The food is great, the service is great, and they do really good cocktails”. Sounds good right? You go to the restaurant, and you don’t like the food. It’s expensive for what you get, and you have a really bad waiter.  So, it happens – not all recommendations turn out the way you expect.

    That’s the risk with recommendations. It’s subjective. What worked for someone else, may not work for you. There are many reasons for this – experience in different areas, size of the project, different services/tasks required, different expectations, conflicting personalities, etc. The list is endless. So, while a recommendation is a helpful, it may not be your holy grail.

    So, what can you do to make sure the recommendation is a good one?

    Heard of the saying “Buyer beware”? Well, the same applies when you get a recommendation.

    As with anything in life, researching the alternatives and doing some due diligence is key. Of course, the amount of effort you take to do this depends on how big a cost you’re looking at. If you buy something for $5 and it doesn’t work, then the risk of not doing any research is low. However, if you’re looking at spending at least $10K with a developer (often more), then it’s probably worth taking some time to see if it’s a good fit.

    Even though you’ve received a recommendation, you still need to check them out. Look at their website – do you like how it looks? See if they have examples or case studies of work that they’ve done – is it comparable to what you’re trying to do? Search for reviews. Look at their social media pages. Interview them. Get references and contact them. Basically, you need to apply the same due diligence as if you were hiring someone that didn’t come from a referral.

    Often friends or relatives will develop platforms and apps on top of their day jobs, so it’s a little bit trickier. They won’t have websites or past references to guide you. In this case, you might look at their professional background on LinkedIn. Does what they’re doing in their day job look anything like what you want them to do? How much do you trust them to do the right thing for your business?

    In many cases, it might be better to look at a few recommendations and make a decision between them. This has the added advantage of allowing you to see how different people and companies do things, so you can get a feel for what works best for you. You’ll also get to compare prices, and see what approach they’re recommending.

    Now what?

    A recommendation is a great place to start when looking for people and things. They can save you hours of hunting around, which cannot be underestimated. The lesson here is to approach with caution.

    Recommendations should only be about saving time on that first step of finding a shortlist of people to evaluate. They shouldn’t be a short cut for the whole hiring process. Given the importance of finding the right developer for your project, don’t rely blindly on recommendations. Consider the source and do your own checking.

    If you want a step-by-step checklist for hiring a developer and for turning your good idea into a great product, then my Idea to Launch Checklist is your plain-English guide to getting there. It’s available now for only $24. Click here to learn more.

  • Idea validation isn’t much fun, but you should still do it

    Idea validation isn’t much fun, but you should still do it

    As you may know, I’m a big advocate of idea validation – the activities around deciding whether you should pursue your idea. In a previous article, I talked about why it was important, and some ways that you can get an initial view of whether your idea is a good one.

    With alarming stats on small business and new product failures, it still surprises me the number of people that don’t take idea validation to heart.

    Actually, maybe it doesn’t.

    Idea validation sucks

    Market research, competitor research, talking to potential customers and users – it’s hard work… and not very sexy. In fact, it’s not much fun at all. You sit at your desk, checking competitor website after competitor website, doing keyword research or begging people to reply to your survey. Then you might dig through mounds and mounds of industry reports to get some statistics to back up your business idea. You might even put some inflated numbers on a spreadsheet to see if you can make any money. If you’re truly ambitious, you’ll try to test your idea – whack up a landing page and try to get people to sign up for your future product. Or maybe you go out and actually talk to some potential customers or users.    

    Let’s face it – many of you probably wouldn’t consider doing most of this. Most of you would rather go straight to building your platform or app, and turning your idea into a reality. That’s the sexy bit.

    There are lots of reasons why people start businesses or build products, but if your goals in any way involve making money or they rely on lots of users, then idea validation is a critical step.

    Let’s put it into perspective

    Popped some acetaminophen or ibuprofen lately? Imagine pharmaceutical companies didn’t validate their ideas for new drugs; they didn’t spend years tweaking formulas, and researching their behaviours and interactions with the body. What if they just made a pill and starting selling it?

    “But Karen”, you might say, “that’s different – I just want to build an app.”

    Ok then, let’s look at something closer to home.

    Founded by Eric Reis, “lean startup” is a product development approach that some of you might have heard of. Did you know that lean startup borrows from scientific method to build new products?

    The theory is that traditional business plans don’t work for products that have a high-degree of uncertainty. Opening a new restaurant or starting a new skin care business both have fairly well-known business models that allow people to follow a standard path of product development. When the outcome of the product is not as sure, then Reis argues that experimentation is the approach required to confirm (or refute) the assumptions that you’re making about your idea. Therefore, you have to test every single part of your business plan (e.g. the problem your idea solves, the solution you propose for it, your target customers, the benefits the product provides, costs, revenue, etc). Until you do that, you shouldn’t spend a lot of money developing your product. This process of testing could take 6 to 12 months to complete. You have to run experiment after experiment – using control and variable groups to prove (or disprove) a hypothesis.

    Imagine idea validation on that scale?! Generally, this kind of validation requires a team of people and a heft monetary investment. However, the potential rewards are in the millions of dollars.

    So, where’s the middle ground?

    My view is to do the least amount of work possible to either prove or disprove that an idea is good one.  If you’re not sure, then dig a little deeper. Start with getting online, and doing searches on potential competitors and getting statistics on market size. You can get a lot of information online these days, which makes it a good place to start. You’ll soon find out pretty quickly whether an idea is feasible or not.  

    Don’t forget to run the numbers.  Platforms and apps have overheads and require ongoing updates.  Make sure you have the money – not just to build one – but also to keep it going.  On the revenue side, think about your pricing and how many users you need to cover your costs – and hopefully make some money.  If you can’t make it work on paper with sensible numbers, then it’s going to be even harder to do it real life!

    At the end of the day though, there’s no substitute for talking to people that you don’t know – especially those that will be your users. So, start with a survey to get a feel for the interest. Follow it up with a few 1-on-1 interviews. You’ll learn so much from them about what they’re really looking for.     

    Finally, if you want to really get serious about validation, look for ways to test your idea with real people.  Can you get people to pay money for something that doesn’t exist yet?!

    Validation doesn’t guarantee success, but it can prevent you from making a mistake

    Ultimately, there are no guarantees for success – which is maybe why people skip validation in the first place. The instinct to just “have a go”, is a strong one, and we don’t get anywhere by doing nothing. If money weren’t involved, I would probably agree. The experience of “doing” is so valuable and so powerful. However, if I have to spend 6 to 12 months, and $50K or more to build a product, then I want to be sure that I’m getting at least $50K of learning out of it! Otherwise, you’ll just have a hole in your pocket. At the end of the day, that’s what idea validation is all about. Will you get something out of developing your idea that is worth the investment? If not, then maybe it’s not such a good idea after all.        

    Want to get serious about validating your idea? Check out our Idea Validation course

    Yes! I want to learn how to validate my idea
  • How do you plan for your platform or app project?

    How do you plan for your platform or app project?

    Following on from last week’s “Idea to Launch checklist” announcement, I thought I’d share one of the areas covered in the checklist and talk about some of the tasks in it.  Today, I’m going to look at tasks in the “Plan your Project” list. Once you’ve decided that you want to turn your idea into a product and you’ve decided what you want that product to do, you have to think about how to get it built.  

    So, what does this involve? 

    The tasks in the “Planning your Project” checklist look at:

    1. Scope: deciding what you build
    2. Funding: getting the money to pay for your product
    3. People: determining who you need to get your product to launch
    4. Timelines: deciding when you want to launch and how to get there
    5. Tracking: setting processes for managing your project
    6. Risks: defining potential areas that will affect the success of your project

    Let’s take a look at these in a bit more detail:

    1. Scope:

    You know what you want your product to do, but how much do you want to build and launch at the beginning? This is your project scope. In a previous article, I talked about minimal viable products and starting with the smallest possible project. For this task, you want to think about what to include in your project now and what you want to do later. You’ll also want to think about how you’ll manage changes to the scope of your project – what happens if something new comes up while you’re building?

    2. Funding:

    This task is about figuring out where you’ll get the money to build your product. Will you use personal savings or maybe borrow from family and friends? Perhaps you can use a crowdfunding platform to get money from people that believe in your idea. Money can come from a lot of different places, so you’ll have to see what option is right for you. Be aware – unless the money is your own, it may come with conditions. You need to decide which ones are the least restrictive in both the short and long term.

    3. People:

    It’s very difficult to build any product without any help – especially a tech product. There are several tasks in this checklist related to people. First, think about creating a user group of potential customers that will be your sounding board as you develop your product.  This is critical to making sure that your product is built with your customer in mind. Also, think about the technical and non-technical people that will need to be involved in your project. What will each person need to do? Who will fill those roles? There are a set of tasks in the Idea to Launch checklist that deal specifically with hiring technical resources for your project.

    4. Timelines:

    At this stage, you might not know how long it will take to build you product. However, for business reasons, you might have a date in mind for launching your product. As you start to hire people for your project, you’ll be able to create a plan of key tasks and dates to get you to launch. You should also identify any key milestones that will be critical to meet in order to complete your project on time.

    5. Tracking:

    The key to staying on track in any project is to continually monitor your progress. The tasks in this area involve determining how you’ll do this. You might want to have a daily or weekly status meeting. There should also be a way to track your costs and where you are in your project. Finally, you want to manage any issues that might arise during the course of the project. There may be technical problems or other things that might increase your costs or delay your launch. You need a process for tracking and dealing with those issues.

    6. Risks:

    Risks are anything that might affect the completion of your project. They can be anything – the ability to get funding, not finding the right skills to do something specialised for your product, a piece of legislation that might affect what your product will do – the possibilities are endless, and will depend on your product. The point is that you need to be aware of the risks so that you can do something about them – before they cause you a problem. So, the tasks here include listing out your risks and deciding how you’re going to handle them.

    What happens next?

    The final task in the “Plan your Project” checklist is to hold a project kick-off meeting. Once you’ve got all of the pieces in place to start your project, then it’s good practice to get people together for a meeting. This is an opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves – but more importantly, it’s useful for setting expectations. You can provide some background to the project, and what you’re hoping this product will achieve. It also sets the stage for how you work together as a team.

    In the Idea to Launch checklist, you’ll also be hiring your developers as you plan your project. After that, the work of developing your product begins – both with technical tasks like designing and building, but also the business tasks of setting up your business.

    If you want to turn your good idea into a great product, then my Idea to Launch Checklist is your plain-English guide to getting there. It’s available now for only $24. Click here to learn more.

  • Get from “idea to launch” with my new checklist!

    Get from “idea to launch” with my new checklist!

    If you’ve got a great idea for an online platform or mobile app, but you’re not sure where to start – you’re not alone. Tech can be intimidating for those that have never had any experience with it before. Sometimes you want someone to guide you through the process – but you just can’t afford to hire someone to help you.

    The good news is that building an online platform or mobile app is a process.  This means there are clearly defined activities that you can follow to reach your end goal. Once you know this, the whole thing becomes more manageable – you just have to take it one step at a time.      

    Introducing the idea to launch checklist

    Today, I’m pleased to introduce the “idea to launch checklist”. This downloadable checklist contains “must-know” tasks in 15 core areas, so you can turn your good idea into a great product. It provides a plain-English roadmap for your journey. You’ll see the main activities for developing a product, and the tasks involved in each step.

    The idea to launch checklist came about as a way to take non-technical people through the creation of a digital product. Like the design and manufacturing of any product or service, platforms and apps have their own brand of jargon and their own unique complexities.  This checklist needed to be written in a way that anyone could follow.

    I understand that not everyone wants to be an expert in software development. Business owners and working professionals certainly have enough things to do and learn! This checklist has been designed with you in mind. If you’re serious about building your own digital product, then the information in this foundational checklist is definitely in the “need to know” bucket. 

    Did you know that on average only 16.2% of software projects are completed on-time, on-budget and with the features and functions originally requested?

    Having worked on technology projects for almost 20 years, I’ve learnt a lot about software development – to a point where it’s mostly routine and I don’t have to think about what to do. Throw in 8+ years in product management, and there’s all of this experience that I took for granted.

    It made me realise that this lack of knowledge is costing people money.  I’m sure people would learn a lot from their experience, but I think they would prefer not to spend so much money on those lessons!

    As someone that’s been doing this for so many years, I really want to help people avoid this situation. So, I’m sharing my experiences and knowledge with people that have had their “light-bulb” idea, and are ready to do something about it.

    Here’s a taste of what you can expect from my checklist:

    • 21 ways to evaluate your idea. Let’s be real – you need to know if you’re backing the right horse.
    • 20 critical steps to finding the perfect developer. This is not the time for speed dating.  A bad decision will cost you time and money and could even delay your product going to market.
    • Plus 25 tasks that will ensure your product testing is rigorous and effective…. If you’re really going to do this, you want to do it right.

    Think about it – you can’t ride a bike the first time you try it. In fact, before you perfected riding on two-wheels, there’s a good chance you rode a tricycle or had training wheels. You also probably fell a few times.  Maybe you could only make it to the end of the driveway before putting your foot down. Eventually though, you made it to the end of the block and around the park a few times.  

    Building digital products is much the same as this. That’s just the way life is. It often takes a few goes around the block before you’re comfortable with what needs to be done. You can try it with two-wheels for the first time without the training wheels, or you can get some help to make it easier on yourself.

    This foundational checklist is all about action. I want to see you get that platform or app built, and I want you to get there in a straight-line path. So, if you’re ready to build your platform or app, click here to find out more.

  • How do you manage issues with your platform or app?

    How do you manage issues with your platform or app?

    Issues are raised when something doesn’t work as expected – a user can’t log in, a picture or information doesn’t display, a number on a report hasn’t been calculated correctly, a link is broken, etc. For those of you that have launched a platform or app already, today’s blog post will certainly resonate with you. Getting to launch is often the focus for many, and they don’t get a chance to think about what happens after. In a previous article, I described 3 areas that you have to consider after launch. Today, I’m going to look at one area in particular – supporting your new product.

    It would be nice to think that nothing goes wrong – unfortunately, it does. When it does, you need to do something to fix it. Your developer – or the people you hire to support your platform – will probably help you with defining this process. They may also have processes in place already. However, it always pays for you to be aware of what should be involved, so you can raise questions and make informed decisions about how your product will be supported.

    1. Categorise your issues:

    The first thing about managing issues (a.k.a. defects, bugs, problems, incidents) is you need to know how bad it is. In tech jargon, this is called “severity”. Issues are often categorised into different severity levels, which indicate how important it is for the issue to be fixed. You might hear terms like “critical”, “major”, “minor” or “cosmetic”.  People also use “severity level 1, 2, 3” – where the 1 is the most critical.  You determine if an issue is “critical” based on its impact to your business and your users.  The criteria for each category should be pre-defined, so that when a new issue is raised, you can just slot it into one of the categories.  There shouldn’t be a big discussion when the issue is raised, because everyone is on the same page.   

    2. Define timelines to fix each type of issue:

    The next step is to decide when each issue needs to be fixed by using the severity levels that have been defined above. Some issues may be so severe that it requires everyone to drop everything to fix it. Others don’t have the same urgency, as there are ways to work around the problem until it can be fixed.  

    The timelines that you define will depend on what level of support that you want (and can afford). If you only have users in one country, then you may only need support during business hours or maybe for specified hours during the day. Alternatively, if you have users all over the world, then you may want to consider 24 x 7 support where someone is always available to respond to issues – even at 3am in the morning!

    3. Define a process for working through each issue:

    This step is about defining a process for investigating and resolving each issue. You need to think about thing like – how users notify you of an issue; checking if an issue is valid (e.g. is it really an issue or just human error?); documenting the issue (e.g. what information do you have to provide to the technical team?); categorising issues; testing an issue to make sure it’s fixed; where you test fixes; how  fixes are implemented; etc. When you answer these questions, you’ll be able to create a process for handling issues when they arise.      

    4. Establish penalties for missing deadlines:

    Running a business is hard enough when things do go right, so it’s critical that things get fixed based on the timelines agreed. If you can’t fix an issue, it could cost you money – both in terms of lost revenue and in payouts you might need to make. Your support partner needs to be accountable for that. However, you don’t want shoddy fixes just so that a deadline can be met, so ensure that you consider quality as well. When you’re setting up your support processes, make sure you define penalties – especially when the most serious deadlines are missed.  

    5. Create your service level agreement:

    When you’re setting up your support process, all of the above pieces will form the basis of a contract with your technical team. This contract will define “service level agreements” (or SLAs) that set out the expectations for resolving any issues that come up. As with your initial contract with your developer, this contract is about protecting your business and making sure everyone is on the same page – especially when the worst case scenarios occur.        

    6. Track and monitor issues:

    Now that you’ve got all of the above setup, you need to track and monitor what happens. This is important – not just for keeping on top of what’s going on with your product – but also to understand how your product is working. Issues can tell you where people are having problems with the user experience, or a specific function that needs to be reviewed.

    To manage your issues, you need to a single place to list all of the issues that are raised, and what their severities are. Issues should be given a status based on their progress through the process that you define. You should also track the dates issues were raised, and when they were fixed. All of this information will help you to stay on top of whether your technical team is meeting the agreed SLAs.      

    Don’t freak out – it’s not so bad!

    This might all seem like a lot to take in, but once you’ve got it all worked out, you can focus on the track and monitor piece. Your technical team will have a lot of input into this too, so they’ll be able to help you. If you’ve completed a thorough test of your product, then it’s unlikely you’ll have too many issues at the beginning. However, the nature of beast is that you can’t test everything, so there’s always a chance that something will go wrong. Setting this up will make sure you’re ready when it does.   

    Want to learn more about building and growing your platform or app? Join our email list to receive regular updates

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  • What’s in your platform or app? (Product Definition)

    What’s in your platform or app? (Product Definition)

    Taking your idea and making it into a product involves a very important step around defining what you want your product to do. This product definition (or product requirements) form the foundation for what happens next, so you need to take some time to understand what you need to look at.

    Previously, I showed you how to write high-level and detailed requirements. In this article, I’m going to look at how a product or service is made up of more than just the thing you use it for. Think about the last time you used a platform or app. How did you interact with it? Along with the core thing that it did for you, what else happened? This will get you thinking about what your whole product will look like.

    Let’s look at example:

    AirBnB allows people with rooms or houses to rent them to people who are looking for rooms or houses. The core things that it allows renters to do includes:

    • Searching for rooms and properties
    • Making a booking (pay and reserve accommodation)

    This is the essence of the service. There are obviously other things that you can do – like book experiences, cancel bookings, leave a review, etc. People supplying the accommodation (aka hosts) also have access to a whole bunch of other features – from listing their accommodation to managing their bookings.  All of these things are  functions in the product.

    I want you to start thinking about the other things that are needed to make your platform work.  So, let’s get started.

    1. Privacy and Data Security

    In order to make a booking on AirBnB, you need to create an account. To do that, the platform needs to collect a person’s personal information including name, address, phone number, email addresses and payment information. This information requires special handling and treatment because of privacy legislation. Privacy and data security are two very important areas to keep in mind when you’re defining your product.

    2. Legal

    When you open an account on any online platform, you might notice a checkbox that says “I agree to the Terms and Conditions”.  This little box is very important.  When someone checks that box, it creates a contract between you and that person.  This contract allows you to do things like charge the person for using the platform, and it also limits your liability if something goes wrong.  Get a lawyer to create your terms and conditions to ensure you get the best protection.

    3. User Account Management

    Once someone has created an account, they’ll probably need to update it at some point. User account management is another function that you need to think about. What information can someone change on the account? What other things will they be able to add or control in their profile?

    4. Pricing

    Your pricing model will have a big impact on the development of your platform or app. It’s pretty straight forward with AirBnB because you pay a rate per night and a cleaning fee (as determined by the host), and you also pay a service fee. However, some platforms are a bit more complicated – having different pricing based on usage, number or resources or accessible features. All of the rules for this kind of pricing have to be built into the platform.

    5. Customer Servicing

    What happens when a customer has a question about how the platform works? Or maybe they can’t login and access their booking? Customer servicing is an important part of any product – and platforms and apps are no different. Think about what methods you want to use to provide customers with a great experience – both on an everyday basis and when things go wrong. What process will be followed? What will you need access to in order to provide support to your customer?

    6. Data and Reporting

    On the business side of things, you need to think about what information you need to understand how well your platform or app is doing. Access to data and reporting are a must-have when running a tech business. Think about what metrics will be important to you, and how you want to receive that information – is it a dashboard, a report or a .CSV file, etc?

    7. Admin

    There are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes to run and operate a product. All of these admin functions need to be included in your platform or app.   May be a customer’s account needs to be updated? Or may be you need to add content on a regular basis? These tasks should also be included in your product definition.

    8. Integrations

    Integrations involve connecting your platform or app to another application. This might include email automation systems, a CRM, a payment gateway (to collect payments), an accounting system, etc. What other applications do you need to run and operate your product?

    What this means for you…

    An idea is initial view of the main thing that your platform or app will do. It describes the problem that you want to address and your high-level solution for it. However, a developer can’t build a platform or app from an idea. In order to get your product built, you need to have a better idea of all of the things that you want your platform or app do – this is your product definition.

    More importantly though, you have to remember that a product is more than just the core things that it does. There are lots of surrounding parts that are needed to run and operate the product. Remember to include these pieces as you take your idea to the next stage. They’ll help you to get an accurate quote for your project and you’ll be in a better position to run and operate your product as a business.

    Need some help defining your product for your developers?
    Check out our requirements writing course.

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  • Looking for an idea for an online platform or mobile app?

    Looking for an idea for an online platform or mobile app?

    Ideas come easily to some – but for others, it’s seems like every idea they come up with has been done already. So, if you’re looking for a platform or app idea, or even if you want to create a product or service of any sort –  but you’re not sure what to do, then this article will give you some areas to look at.

    Contrary to popular belief, most ideas don’t just land on your head.  They come about because you’ve made an active choice to look for them. In product development, the activity of looking for ideas is called “ideation”. Yes, there’s a step out there where you commit some time to come up with ideas.   

    As you start brainstorming for ideas, you need to remember two key things:

    1. In order for a solution (or product) to exist, there has to be a problem to solve, a need to address, or a goal to reach. If there’s no problem, there’s no product.
    2. The problem has to be painful enough, or the need or goal big enough for people to seek out solutions for it. If there’s no pain, there’s no product.

    So, let’s get started.

    The best places to look for ideas are in places that you know.

    1. Look at your current business or organisation

    I doubt there are any perfect businesses out there, so this is a good place to start. Whether you own your own business or work for someone else’s, think about its weaknesses or anything that might threaten its success. Are there any areas that might have a big enough problem for you to solve?     

    Also think about the opportunities in the business. Is there something going on that you might be able to leverage into something bigger? Think about all of those tools that exist to automate things or to make things more efficient. Is there an untapped market out there as it relates to your business?

    2. Look at your industry

    Next, look at the industry that you operate in. Are there any significant problems or challenges that you face? Are there any political, economic, social or technological trends that may either threaten or create opportunities for you?

    What are your direct competitors or alternative competitors working on? Is there an opportunity to do something better than them? Are there weaknesses that you could exploit?

    Look at your indirect competitors. Are there industries that are different from yours, but may be structured in the same way? What are they doing and what can you learn from them?  

    3. Look at your job role and those around you

    There may be ideas in your job role, or in those around you. As a business owner, could you leverage your strengths to create a new product or service? Maybe there are areas that you find challenging or hard to do well?   Are there other roles in your business that you’ve found problematic?  Maybe it’s hard to find good people? Or maybe the role itself has challenges? What kinds of tools could be created to make life easier for you?  

    Those in corporate land also have an opportunity to find pain points in their own roles and in those around them. Talk to other people that have these roles and find out what keeps them up at night. Is it the same as you?

    In my first article for this blog, I told the story of how I started out. I’ve worked in tech for a long time, and my idea for Great Products Consulting came out of challenges that I faced in my roles as a business analyst and a product manager. If I had these challenges as an expert, I could  imagine what it would be like for people that had never done this before. 

    4. Look at your personal life

    What problems do you face in your personal life? Maybe you have a need to fill or a goal to achieve? Think about a typical day or week, and all of the things that you do. Are there any areas where you get stuck? Are there services or products that you use that don’t work the way that you need them to? Have you had any recent experiences that took up more of your time than you thought it would? Maybe there was a particularly difficult experience that could have gone better? Conduct surveys with people you don’t know. Find out what their needs, problems, and goals are in a particular area of interest to you, and find out whether the results align with your ideas.

    5. Look at what else is going on in the world around you

    If all else fails, look in general at what’s going on in the world around you. Maybe there are some social or technical trends that you could capitalise on? Is there something going on in the economy that needs a solution? Maybe changes in the political environment have opened up an opportunity for new product ideas? This category is probably your last resort because you may end up with ideas that aren’t as appealing – simply because they’re not in your area of expertise or experience.

    Keep on looking…

    Don’t worry if your initial list of ideas sucks – or maybe something that initially sounded like a good idea, ends up being a dud. This process of looking for ideas will actually spark your creativity. You’ll find yourself coming up with more and more ideas – as long as you continue to probe into these different areas. Think of this first attempt as a warm up exercise for the real deal. You’re now looking for ideas, rather than hoping one will miraculously appear – and that will make all of the difference. Good luck and happy ideating!

    Want to learn more about building and growing your platform or app? Join our email list to receive regular updates

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  • What are your options for hiring a developer?

    What are your options for hiring a developer?

    You’ve got an idea for a web platform or mobile app that you’ve decided to turn into a real product. You’ve documented what you want the product to do and you may have even drawn up some screens. So, now you need someone to make your idea into a living, breathing product. Along with figuring out how to brief a developer, hiring a developer is somewhere near the top of the list of challenges when building a web platform or mobile app. It’s such an important decision to make, but where do you start?

    How do developers work?

    The first thing is to understand the structure of the development industry. Developers can work via different arrangements:

    1. As an employee – where they work for you either in a permanent role or via a fixed-term contract
    2. As a freelancer (or contractor) – either hired by you directly or via an agency/recruitment firm; with the agency performing a mainly administrative role (e.g. billing, payroll, etc) and charging a percentage of the fee paid for the freelancer
    3. As an agency – where the agency is an outsourcing partner; offering a variety of services related to developing apps

     As a new business, you do have a few additional options:

    1. Find a “technical” co-founder – someone who will build, operate and enhance your product for you in exchange for some equity in your business
    2. Apply for an accelerator – where some of these provide development skills and business guidance in exchange for some equity in your business

    So, which one is right for you?

    There’s a lot to weigh up here and it’s not a decision to take lightly. Some considerations include:

    • How much control do you want to have in your company?  The more equity you give away, the less control you have.
    • What’s your budget?  Some options are cheaper for you than others.
    • How much do you want to be “involved” in the technical building of your app? Similar to the budget question, the more involved you want to be, the cheaper it will be.
    • What roles do you need to fill? If you need different skills to make your idea a reality, some options will act as a “one-stop-shop” for all of your development needs. 

    While these are the obvious questions, there are a few other considerations to factor in.

    What are your ultimate goals for the platform or app?

    This is an important question to ask yourself as this affects the type of developer you look for. Are you building an app to sell out at a future stage? Or are you in it to create an ongoing stream of income for yourself? 

    When you give away equity or take on investment funding, there is always the expectation that people will want to get their money back – and then some. There are people that build apps purely for the opportunity to sell it for big bucks some time in the future. This business model generally involves large-scale investment up-front with a view of not making any profit in the short-term (think of any large online platform, and chances are this is how they’ve done it). Investors and founders make their money on the sale of the product (or going public on a stock exchange).

    If you want to build your app purely to supplement or replace an existing salary, then you want to find an option that involves business partner(s) that have the same goals as you do, or you outsource to a freelancer or developer.

    Do you know anyone personally or through a friend or acquaintance that might fit the bill in any of the above categories?

    By far, the easiest way to find a developer is through a referral – either someone you know personally or someone that has a good reference from someone you know and respect. Like anyone that you might hire for your business, trust is an important part of the equation and if you can find someone you trust through your own network, it makes things a lot easier.

    There’s a caveat here – don’t trust blindly! The developer may be good at what they do, but they may not have any experience in your domain or industry. The person you know may have had good results with a developer, but others might not have. Do your due diligence to make sure that the referral or recommendation is the right choice for your project.    

    Who will make a better long-term partner?

    Knowing someone may not be enough of a reason to hire them. Building and running a platform or app is an on-going process. As I explained in Part 4 of my series on product and software development, your product will change and evolve over time. You’ll also have ongoing maintenance and support issues to deal with. This means that ideally, your developer is in it for the long haul. You want someone that isn’t just attracted to the shiny, new platform or app you want to build. This someone needs to stick around after it’s been built. There are so many stories of developers that become unresponsive after the initial launch – mainly because they want to get onto the next shiny project. It’s not always easy to find the right developer though – generally, most will already be taken by the high-paying startups or they work in large corporations.  

    Where does that leave you?!

    You most likely won’t be able to afford to hire a developer in a permanent role and if you want to retain control of your business, then most of the equity options are out. This means you’re left with finding a tech co-founder, using a freelancer or an agency.  

    There is no “best” option here. A lot will depend on the person or agency that you choose – and there can be lots of variation in quality between them. Choose carefully as picking the right developer is an important factor in the success of your development project (check out my tips article for other factors). 

    To wrap up, if you’re looking to build a web/online platform or mobile app and you can’t code, then you’ve got to put together your own development team. There are several options for doing this and you’ll have to decide which is best for you based on your circumstances.

    Want to learn more about building and growing your platform or app? Join our email list to receive regular updates

    Just curious
    Evaluating my idea
    Ready to start building
    Building my product
    Launched my product

    * When you sign up for our list, we’ll send you emails that include news and updates, occasional offers and promotions, and exclusive content and resources to help you on your development journey. We will not spam you. If you don’t wish to hear from us anymore, simply select the unsubscribe option at the bottom of any email that we send to you. To view our privacy policy, click here.