One of the lessons I’ve learned over the years from working with start-ups and ‘intrapreneurs’ at enterprise SaaS firms is how to tactically roll out new information services. The classic model is to first build a minimally viable product (MVP) with a limited scope and then scale it incrementally, making feature and functionality tweaks along the way.
The MVP’s initial scope should be big enough to provide the critical metrics required for go/no-go decision-making but limited enough to be accomplished with a reasonable amount of investment capital. This allows you to both prove the value proposition (i.e., “Did we fill the ‘unmet need’ that we suspected was there?”) and to generate some initial revenue to help fund the fulfillment of your mission.
Once the MVP has proven that people are willing to pay money for it, scaling the product can involve one or more of the following approaches to expansion:
- a firmographic scope that includes smaller-sized firms in the target industry
- a wider geographical scope that includes larger regions, the nation, or the world
- a broader market scope encompassing adjacent industry categories
This “crossing the chasm” approach is battle-tested and works like a charm. You’ve proved that the product has real value to end-users, you’ve managed your capital well, and you’ve made data-driven decisions methodically, reducing the risk of pricing miscalculations, missing features, and/or awkward functionality.
Of course there are always macroeconomic factors, competitors, and execution/marketing missteps that can still blindside your roll-out effort in mid-stream, but most of the major risk factors of new product development are mitigated via this time-honored strategy.
Are you ready to roll the dice again on a new product launch or the expansion of your service’s scope? We’ve witnessed some incredible success stories over the years and the digitization of the world’s businesses is just getting started so if you want to dip your toes into some new waters reach out to us and our R&D department would be glad to help give you the data you need to succeed.
