Do you want to be sure that every hour spent designing and building software will result in a wealth of satisfied clients and exciting new business opportunities?
Does this sound familiar?
If you put a bunch of smart, creative people together and throw a problem at them, there will be no shortage of good ideas. It can be very tempting to pick the most promising one and “just build”, or even try to squeeze all of them into a product roadmap.
That’s how many innovation projects begin, but the inconvenient truth is that many of those ideas are simply not going to work.
Yes, ideas are valuable, but what your clients and users are really craving are not ideas but solutions that help them efficiently solve problems or pursue the opportunities they see emerging.
No matter how smart you are, there is a big gap and a long road between even the best ideas and solutions that fit the bill.
My clients often have problems with:
- Aligning assumptions and expectations with all stakeholders;
- Siloed marketing, product and development teams;
- Needing a lot of re-work due to late feedback;
- Leveraging data and the capabilities of existing products in new prototypes;
- Transferring knowledge from innovation into production teams;
- Missed sales opportunities because new capabilities take too long to deliver.
So, how do you overcome these common roadblocks to get from idea to solution (product)...?
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First…
Bridge the gap by discovering the problem and validating solutions
The information gathered during market research or any other due diligence activity is useful and might give you a good initial understanding of the problem.
But, it’s only good enough for making the first step.
If you want to develop a marketable product, you’ll need to simultaneously move along two parallel lines of work that continuously feedback into each other: discovery and validation.
Discovery and Validation
Even the ideas with lots of potential will go through several iterations before reaching the point where users even recognise a solution that is worth investing time and money into.
If you want to reach that point as quickly and simply as possible, with confidence, you need to set up a process that aligns different disciplines, builds commitment and ensures smooth and frequent communication between users, stakeholders and technologists.
I can change the way you think about developing new products!
As part of my comprehensive offering, I will guide you through discovery, engagement and dialogue, showing you how to discover the best steps to take when selecting an idea and developing it into a successful product.
I always aim to create an enduring and productive process that increases the capacity of your organisation to conduct discovery and validation, which leads to the ability to try more ideas and expand into new territories.
Need an instant expert advice to address a specific
problem, concern or opportunity?
Schedule a 1:1 session for a flat rate
The Results Speak for Themselves…
“Mike took lead in a large project involving several product teams and architects. Due the number of stakeholders and the expertise required to understand the domains, an initial approach to the project was not succesful.
By taking lead and restarting the project by organizing several workshops, Mike was able to create a clear focus among stakeholders and collaboratively design a series of implementation steps to help achieve the original goal.
Mike really shines in making a complex project much clearer by breaking it down in several easier to achieve steps.
We would not be at the point we are now without Mike’s help.”
“Mike helped SURF to create a demo that spurred interest from many organisations, and was able to turn it into a functional playground that could be explored by our potential users. The result was that we got to participate in three projects that used the prototype as basis for further development and potential future services. Despite a complex landscape with multiple stakeholders, Mike understood their different needs, and took that into account during the development.”
What does working with me look like?
What exactly do I offer?
Each organisation and project have unique traits and are often at a different stage of the business development timeline. Therefore, I need to dive into your situation before proposing a concrete goal to work towards.
After this, I can help to:
- Get a clear picture of your current process;
- Define improvement objectives and metrics;
- Identify main risks and find a way to tackle them upfront;
- Dramatically reduce the time-to-decision: pivot or persevere;
- Establish an early feedback cycle with your customers and users;
- Align different disciplines and set up a common short-term goal;
- Find and engage early adopters;
- Understand what technical capabilities you need to develop a product;
- Provide advice on technology & architecture and development practices suitable for effective discovery and validation;
- Integrate new products with existing products & services your company provides;
- Get honest feedback and support.
How do I price my services?
After an initial call, where I will ask you questions about the project and desired results, I will write a project proposal with several fixed-priced options.
Each option will have a clearly defined outcome, scope of work and fixed price that is precisely the amount you’ll pay even if I underestimated the job.
I believe that this way of pricing delivers the best results. My clients appreciate this pricing model because they know exactly how much they will pay and can decide upfront if the proposed benefits outweigh the cost.
What do I guarantee?
I guarantee that whatever qualitative or quantitative objective we agree on will be achieved by the end of my engagement.
Can I guarantee the commercial success of your product?
The product's commercial success depends on so many factors that no single person in the world can guarantee it. I can ensure, however, that you and your team will have a much better understanding of where you stand, the path ahead and how to achieve your ultimate goals with my help. While I may not be by your side for the duration of your product journey, I can guarantee that my expert guidance and advice will drastically increase your chances for success and provide you with clear, immediate actions to efficiently bring your product to market.
Can I meet a tight deadline?
Along with each proposal, I provide a timeline, which is (in contrast to the price) an estimate. Most of my projects are completed according to the timeline, but a delay may occur due to the collaborative nature of the work. If I anticipate a delay, you will get an updated deadline as soon as possible.
If you have a deadline to meet, mention this in our initial meeting. I’ll consider this when making a project proposal and defining the timeline.
What industries do I specialise in?
I’ve helped many enterprise companies, nonprofits and startups that operate in the domain of cloud computing, enterprise software development, academic publishing and research data management.
If your organisation or product does not fall into these categories, don’t worry!
I am always happy to discuss before taking on a project, and I will let you know if I don’t think I’m the right fit.
Interested in streamlining and supercharging your product development?
Schedule a free call to discuss a project
What does collaborating with me look like?
While the form of collaboration and frequency of communication depends entirely on the objectives we want to achieve, there are a lot of common aspects.
- I pay a lot of attention to trust and control issues and discuss them explicitly before the beginning of each project.
- I always aim to create a balanced relationship where both client and myself decide on: framing the initial problem, selecting the method and dimensions to be studied, and whom to involve in the project.
Together, we track progress, assess results and recommendations, and decide on actions.
