Now that you are well on your way to building your MVBP (minimum viable business product), and have a good idea on your quantified value proposition (QVP) or unique value proposition (UVP), it’s time to focus on your business’s core and moat. The core is what makes it impossible for others to copy you; the moat is what gives you a running start and slows down your competitors as they try to follow your lead.
Prepare
- Continue to run daily standups and weekly goal setting and wall-of-wins celebration sessions with your team.
- Check in with your team to see how they feel thus far. Do this one-on-one. Are people energized? Are they discouraged by setbacks? How do they feel about the venture itself and their role in it?
- Remember: Relationships are built one person at a time, one conversation at a time. Group check-in’s are good for coordination but people need time with you alone. Consider coming up with a regular cadence to touch bases with each of your team members regularly so there is a safe space for them to celebrate successes and share concerns.
Learn
- Software teams: Watch this short video about how to prototype websites and apps.
- Hardware teams: Watch this short video about how to do prototyping.
- Some of it may be tough to do during quarantine. However, you can do much more than you think at home. Check out this Masterclass about how to build hardware without access to a makerspace or machine shop. MIT people with a Kerberos login can also check out Professor Marty Culpepper’s Wiki on remote making.
- If you are working on a medical device, this Master Class on Regulatory Pathways for Medical Devices by Trilo Das is a must-read.
- Whether y0u are making hardware or software, you always need user input. Check out this short video about UX testing.
Build
- Use this worksheet to define your core.
- Use this worksheet to revisit your competitive advantage
- At this halfway point, go back to the beginning and check your problem-solution fit. Given your segmentation and beachhead market work, your persona work and mapping user needs and wants, does your solution make sense? Does it solve the problem you set out to solve? Is your business case logical thus far? If not, go back to the beginning and rework your problem statement and user research.
- Remember: A viable ventures comes out of strong problem-solution fit.
Trivia question of the week:
- Why is 3d printing not always your first line of defense when it comes to rapid prototyping of physical things?