There’s no doubt about it, starting a technology business will be one of the most difficult challenges that you will ever undertake. The investment emotionally, financially and the amount of time it requires means your life is about to change in a big way. Therefore, before you launch into this challenge, be sure that you have answered the following points:
Solve a problem:
You don’t need to write a single line of code to develop screens and discuss your product and its prospects (with people you don’t know). Who cares if it’s non-functional, you are validating your idea and the solution.
Sure, until your solution is in the hands of customers, you’ll never truly know how they will interact with your product. But if your idea isn’t a problem worth solving prototyping is cheap, fast and will help you through the process of envisaging your solution. You can find thousands of designers on Fiverr.com or if you know someone to help you out even better.
Make sure you validate the whole business, including how you will make money. I recommend checking out “the lean canvas” to help you with your checklist of what you need to validate but here are some headlines: –
- What is the problem?
- Who has this problem?
- Is the problem worth solving?
- How will you make money?
Keep in Lean
Don’t sweat the small stuff, until you have a problem worth solving and the shape of a product customers will use, the finer details don’t matter. If it solves a problem people will accept bugs and a lack of nice features. There is no point in polishing something that no one wants to use. Find something that people like then start refining it.
Data doesn’t lie:
Measuring success is a key part of learning whether your product is well received. You need to gain insight into how people are using your product. Do they come back a day, week, or month from now? If they do, well done! Using analytics is fundamental to understanding user behaviour. You should integrate the basics ready for your launch. We love Mixpanel here at ASKWHO. Vanity metrics like downloads are useless, it’s the actions users are taking (or not taking) that are the difference between success and failure.
Books to cherish:
The books below are worth their weight in gold and will save you time and resources.
- The Four Step to the Epiphany
- Crossing the Chasm
- The Art of War
- The Art of the Pitch
- The Lean Start up
- How to Build a Billion-Dollar App
- Getting Things Done
- The 5am Club
- Start with Why
- Venture Deals
- Startup CEO