For this post, I’d like to step back a moment. Instead of looking at the why’s and how’s of the methodology, I would like to instead consider one of the key benefits that Agile brings to both us as product creators and to our customers. What you might think of as the “Value” with a capital “V” of Agile. This is that it brings down the cost of change.
Why you still need Services when offering an Enterprise SaaS solution
Maybe I’m simplifying things to say that for the Enterprise, the biggest change that Software as a Service brings is a matter of technical delivery. In that I mean it removes the task to install and maintain the software itself. But I believe that even if you are offering a SaaS solution, the need remains to understand business flow and integration with other systems in the enterprise.
Don’t chase, double down on what is working
The beauty about traction, is that only after you are achieving it that you really can see that you have it. It’s visible from these data points and metrics gathered over a period of time. Before you have the trend, you are sometimes flaying about trying to find it. It’s at this point that you need to really double down.
Why you should treat Partners and Employees as Customers
It’s not reasonable to expect people to contribute to our business without return. We need to consider what’s in it for them. I believe that we need to look at partners and employees as customers. They pay us with their time, their outputs, the doors they open and their loyalty.
When the inside matches the outside
Startups should first start with trying to understand the market and what you can uniquely offer of value to that market. That I meant not to ignore traditional branding activities, just not to prioritize that before they have product/market fit validated. And base your branding on this discovery.
Why Founders should focus on Growth at later stages
An early focus on achieving scale takes away from the initial priorities of discovery and validation – achieving product / market fit and then subsequently problem / solution fit. If a company scales without nailing operational efficiencies then they can lose control over customer acquisition costs and operational costs. The more customers you have, then the harder it can be to actually identify the need for and perform necessary pivots.
