Myplanet Digital: Better organizations through technology.

As digital strategists, we’re frequently approached by a range of organizations - from start-up entrepreneurs to large and established enterprises. They often come to us with a problem ready to be solved, or a concept for a new start-up or spin-off. One of our key roles is to help separate what can be viable, or what ideas might need a bit more brainstorming, and then put together a game plan for how to execute on the concept.
 
I wanted to write today about some of the key concepts we incorporate into our planning for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. These are based on years of experience at Myplanet with similar ventures, and my own personal experience working with over 25 new web ventures.

Principle One: Launch Quickly and Iterate
The project goals and potential functionality documented during our planning helps everyone see where a new web platform could go down the road (months to years). The next step is to identify the most important features for a usable product that could be launched within a few months – your launch product.
 
Of all the ideas that were put on the table, what do you really need to implement to have a usable product that offers value for customers? Now is a good time to scale back the complexity of your concept -- don’t underestimate the time it takes to deploy even the “smallest features”.
 
Surveys of I.T. projects have found that over half take significantly longer than initial projects to complete – often trying to do too much or making a product too perfect. Most new ventures are especially strained for both resources and time. Instead of launching when you’re 100% ready, you want to start small but with an impact, and grow quickly. The advantage of the web is the ability to quickly evolve and improve your offering – why not take advantage of that!
 
Look at companies such as Craigslist, Facebook, SurveyMonkey and eBay. They all started with very simple concepts – in some cases even with sub-par usability, marketing or functionality. But they still did one core thing really well, developed a following who supported them, and as their cash flow grew they invested to refine and evolve their offering.
 
Principle Two: Ruthlessly backlog the extras
Research has shown that in the majority of web platforms, most of the functionality that is developed (over 45%) is never actually used. I would have to say that from our experience I would agree. But rest assured – there are ways to update your project plan to help avoid much of this waste.

Industry Study - Frequency with which new web features and functionality are used

Source: http://www.standishgroup.com/
 
I find that a useful exercise is to re-state the primary goal of your new concept – for example “to connect widget purchasers with a global network of widget suppliers.” Now take all the potential functionality and think about what your launch product would look like if you implemented 50%, 25% or even 15% of what you want to do. Can you get creative and have a usable product at each of these points, even if only as a proof of concept?
 
If you’re launching early, working towards a proof of concept, and getting feedback as quickly as possible, then you begin to gather the feedback on what your customer do value and you can invest in developing the features that they will use. 

Principle Three: Get a Proof of Concept
Thanks to the web the costs to test out a new concept are lower than ever. If you want to open a new retail store you need to lease a location, renovate, purchase inventory, hire employees and setup marketing campaigns to determine if you’ve got a profitable concept.

With the web you have more options. Where possible we try to work from existing and established technologies to generate a first generation of a new concept. If you want to create a social network, for example, there are a variety of products available (from Ning to KickApps) that can likely get you started. This completes the launch product sooner, allowing us to focus on executing the concept and developing new functionality that adds value, rather than re-inventing the wheel.

When we have something that truly is unique and proprietary, and nothing existing would provide a good starting point, we will often conduct test direct marketing campaigns to understand if there is a consumer demand, how we can tap it, and the cost of acquisition. At the very least this helps inform a reasonable business case to support the investment required.
 
Principle Four: Develop Towards the Best End Product, Not The Initial Set of Specifications
Requirements change, and when it comes down to application development, there are key steps you can take to manage the inevitable change that will take place as development progresses, your needs and opportunities change, and you get feedback from stakeholders.
 
There are many project management philosophies, but to over-simplify, two common approaches are the Waterfall and Agile approaches. In the more traditional Waterfall methodology, the focus is on the step-by-step completion of a pre-defined set of features, culminating in one large product release at the end. With Agile methodology, functionality is prioritized into regular (two to three week) development cycles. After each cycle, any changes to the project requirements are considered, and the next set of priorities are set. Cycle by cycle the project gets closer to the desired functionality.
 
Our experience has shown agile or iterative development methodologies to be the most effective in:

• Embracing and adapting to scope creep and requirements change
• Ensuring regular communication and clear expectations
• Producing usable and useful functionality sooner

As scope creep occurs, we always have the ability to bring the new functionality or change into the next development cycle, and move something else to the list of future items.

And it’s not just our experience – many studies have shown that for online application development, projects managed using an Agile methodology are more likely to succeed, in addition to better reported success on metrics such as schedule (on-time), budget (ROI), quality and workplace health.

Industry Study - Improved satisfaction in project outcomes under Agile development

Source: http://www.ddj.com/ 
 
Do you have a concept for a new start-up or spin-off? What do you think? Comment below or contact me. Or if you’ve been through this experience, what have you learned that you can share with other entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. I’d love to hear from you.