The two most important problems early stage startup founders need to solve are – figuring out the product market fit (discovery phase) and speedy yet low cost iterative implementation (iterative product development phase). These are the yin and yang of the startup cosmos, interlinked enough but are separate.
Discovery Phase
Figuring out the product market fit is not a simple and a short journey as the movie ‘The Social Network’ illustrates it is. It is an iterative process full of a lot of no’s from customers who think that the startup founder, the first product manager of the startup, is wasting their time. But if the founders persist, learn and make enough intelligent decisions after every iteration, usually at some point a small set of potential users start to commit and convert to a user. This is commonly known as the customer discovery and development process.
For instance at Makeen, our experts not only mentor startup founders but also help them through the phases of customer discovery and development by helping the founders conceptualize the ideas, gather and understand user feedback for product development.
Check out how we do it at Makeen
Iterative Development Phase
But customer discovery and development alone will not cut it for founders, it must be combined with fast and iterative product development which needs to be directed by a deep user and business insights acquired from the customer discovery process – if product market fit is to be achieved. It is only when the product is thrown in the hands of the user, the real feedback starts to come and the validation process is started. As a result, it must be thrown not only often enough but with the right improvements that keep the user engaged and delighted.
At Makeen, we have helped several founders by helping them with the product design and engineering of their products, features and services. We understand the inherent uncertainty involved with a startup and therefore we provide tailored and customized engineering solutions for the needs of the startup and their founders at various stages.
At Makeen, we have had the opportunity to help build several projects that symbolize it
