Let me explain the problem I am trying to solve (maybe you can confirm if the problem is real or not).
When you have a product idea, you must work on two aspects BEFORE the building of the product starts.
First, you need to be very sure of WHAT you are building i.e.
* what problems are you solving,
* is that problem worth solving,
* what do your users feel about that problem,
* come up with some suggestions for a solution,
* engage your users and get their feedback on the problems and solution
The priority here is to find a handful of users with the problem you plan to solve and then keep them involved during the product planning and building phases.
The second part is HOW you solve it. It involves
* Prioritizing the features
* Planning an MVP
* Figuring out how much and how long will the proposed solution take
* Creating a user flow of the recommended features
* Plan the screens and screen flow for each user type
* Creating the UX of your solution
* and so on.
The last part is building the product, which is easy if you take care of the first two parts of planning.
A solution that I have in mind addresses the first two parts of planning using a combination of
Technology: A system where users plan the features, collect feedback, create user flows, plan the screens, use a mood board for UI/UX inspirations, and so on.
Community: Where the (potential) users of their app can vote/discuss these features/screens/releases etc.
Marketplace: Where experts can be hired for specific tasks like creating UIs, Logos, Wireframes, and so on.
Right now, I am still in the exploration phase.
I am conducting a series of in-person meetups in my city, talking to all the startups and people with ideas and figuring out what is essential for them.
BTW, @hailcaesar best of luck. I will continue the discussion in your thread.
The process you describe sounds theoretically correct, although practically I skip most of these steps as a solo founder.
The goal in an early-stage product should be to get as many useful insights as possible. What the market wants, whether you can reach your customer, if you can technically build what you envision, etc.
This means that if you do your job right, you'll keep getting more information that will guide you forward. That means that whatever you plan quickly becomes outdated. You don't want to execute on old ideas that didn't take into account the new insights.
For that reason I find planning more than a few weeks in advance not that useful.
Additional, as a developer, I prefer to build an MVP as quickly as possible to see what resonates with the market. Rather than doing a ton of research which is time consuming and something I simply don't enjoy as much.
I expect that for companies with (larger) teams the steps you outline become a lot more important though. So I think it all comes down to who your target market is.
Hi Gunjan, welcome to WIP!
Ap Maker Verse looks intriguing. @hailcaesar just joined the community as well and we're discussing this topic in his intro post: wip.co/posts/hi-i-m-marcus-wb…
Curious to get your thoughts on it as well.
Thanks, @marc, for pointing this out.
Let me explain the problem I am trying to solve (maybe you can confirm if the problem is real or not).
When you have a product idea, you must work on two aspects BEFORE the building of the product starts.
First, you need to be very sure of WHAT you are building i.e.
* what problems are you solving,
* is that problem worth solving,
* what do your users feel about that problem,
* come up with some suggestions for a solution,
* engage your users and get their feedback on the problems and solution
The priority here is to find a handful of users with the problem you plan to solve and then keep them involved during the product planning and building phases.
The second part is HOW you solve it. It involves
* Prioritizing the features
* Planning an MVP
* Figuring out how much and how long will the proposed solution take
* Creating a user flow of the recommended features
* Plan the screens and screen flow for each user type
* Creating the UX of your solution
* and so on.
The last part is building the product, which is easy if you take care of the first two parts of planning.
A solution that I have in mind addresses the first two parts of planning using a combination of
Technology: A system where users plan the features, collect feedback, create user flows, plan the screens, use a mood board for UI/UX inspirations, and so on.
Community: Where the (potential) users of their app can vote/discuss these features/screens/releases etc.
Marketplace: Where experts can be hired for specific tasks like creating UIs, Logos, Wireframes, and so on.
Right now, I am still in the exploration phase.
I am conducting a series of in-person meetups in my city, talking to all the startups and people with ideas and figuring out what is essential for them.
BTW, @hailcaesar best of luck. I will continue the discussion in your thread.
The process you describe sounds theoretically correct, although practically I skip most of these steps as a solo founder.
The goal in an early-stage product should be to get as many useful insights as possible. What the market wants, whether you can reach your customer, if you can technically build what you envision, etc.
This means that if you do your job right, you'll keep getting more information that will guide you forward. That means that whatever you plan quickly becomes outdated. You don't want to execute on old ideas that didn't take into account the new insights.
For that reason I find planning more than a few weeks in advance not that useful.
Additional, as a developer, I prefer to build an MVP as quickly as possible to see what resonates with the market. Rather than doing a ton of research which is time consuming and something I simply don't enjoy as much.
I expect that for companies with (larger) teams the steps you outline become a lot more important though. So I think it all comes down to who your target market is.