How do I identify the right amount of money for my project in 2018?
Creating a business plan is a good first step towards answering the fundamental, and critical, question of how much money it will take to get the venture started.
When launching a new product, the main expenses to budget for are product development and marketing.
In this article, we will explore costs associated with product development. We’ll save marketing for a future post.
Step 1
Identify business needs, goals and platforms.
The main purpose of any business is to make money. But first you determine what kind of business you want to build: something you can sell one day or something that supports your lifestyle.
It’s vital to form your product vision and understand your target audience. You also need to decide on which platforms it will be implemented: iPhone/Android, Web application, cloud/local hosting, etc.
Step 2
Create business model and detailed plan.
Find a starting point for your business model. Think about how you will generate revenue and what your future expenditures will be. Plan your cash flow. Your roadmap will evolve over time, but it helps to build a solid product architecture. These plans will help your development team understand the main goals of the product.
Step 3
Prioritize features that help you earn money.
In today’s web development marketplace, it’s unwise to spend years launching a niche product or service. You don’t want to waste time and resources on something that doesn’t create real value. That’s why it’s necessary to bring out-of-box solutions to your customers as fast as you can.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product) development accelerates your launch process exponentially. It’s a timesaving formula for testing your product on a target audience without disregarding a code quality or marketing. The main goal is not to create a perfect product, but to spot flaws ASAP with a help of real customer feedback.
The main value of this method is in realizing product functionality more cost effectively. This incremental approach enables you to align the service model with your customer’s needs.
An MVP is a common approach for launching a product fast. It provides a basis for seeking investment with the least possible risk.
Step 4
MVP Estimation
With your detailed plans in place, it’s now time to estimate the level of effort to implement. Seeking advice from a developer seems like an obvious choice, but a team of experts is better.
Estimating a project is a risky endeavour.
A developer might think that they understand your needs, but a simple miscommunication could vary the scope widely. Some developers might not have expertise in certain areas, which could cause inaccurate estimates.
Sometimes, there are unknown factors that could lead to increasing the scope and these possibilities increase as more features, technologies, integrations and platforms are introduced.
To mitigate these risks, Speed and Function oftentimes starts with the most critical features. A Discovery Phase along with a Proof of Concept builds a basis of understanding, making it easier to estimate the MVP.
Speed and Function has delivered 155,000+ hours on 200+ projects. This experience has made us experts in estimating and building MVPs.
Need help estimating your project?