Building a Minimum viable product
Eric Ries, a consultant and writer on startups has popularized minimum viable product (MVP) as a development technique in which a new product or website is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters.
The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product’s initial users or persona.
Also, a minimum viable product (MVP) can also be the most pared down version of a product that can still be released.
It should be noted that an MVP has three key characteristics:
- The product has enough value that people are willing to use it or buy it initially.
- Did it demonstrates enough future benefit to retain early adopters.
- It also embrace a feedback loop to guide future development.
An MVP is the smallest thing that can be built and delivered quickly to test one of your hypotheses and help you learn and evaluate your effort.
In Design Thinking, MVPs are closely aligned with a set of Hills. Teams often define their MVP statements and their Hills in parallel.
Speed bumps in building an MVP
Building an MVP is not without risks, both real and imagined. Both can derail a startup effort unless they are understood ahead of time.
The most common speed bumps are legal issues, fears about competitors, branding risks, and the impact on morale. For startups that rely on patent protection, there are special challenges with releasing an early product.
In some jurisdictions, the window for a patent begins when the product is released to the general public, and depending on the way the MVP is structured, releasing it may start this clock.
Even if your startup is not in one of those jurisdictions, you may want international patent protection and may wind up having to abide by these more stringent requirements.
In many industries, patents are used primarily for defensive purposes, as a deterrent to hold competitors at bay. In such cases, the patent risks of an MVP are minor compared with the learning benefits.
However, in industries in which a new scientific breakthrough is at the heart of a company’s competitive advantage, these risks need to be balanced more carefully. In all cases, entrepreneurs should seek legal counsel to ensure that they understand the risks fully.
Legal risks may be daunting, but you may be surprised to learn that the most common objection I have heard over the years to building an MVP is fear of competitors especially large established companies—stealing a startup’s ideas. If only it were so easy to have a good idea stolen!
Part of the special challenge of being a startup is the near impossibility of having your idea, company, or product be noticed by anyone, let alone a competitor.
In fact, I will suggest the following assignment to entrepreneurs who are fearful of this issue :
- Take one of your ideas (one of your lesser insights, perhaps), and the name of the relevant product manager at an established company who has responsibility for that area, and try to get that company to steal your idea.
- Call them up, write them a memo, send them a press release—go ahead, try it.
The truth is that most managers in most companies are already overwhelmed with good ideas. Their challenge lies in prioritization and execution, and it is those challenges that give a startup hope of surviving. If a competitor can out execute a startup once the idea is known, the startup is doomed anyway.
The reason to build a new team to pursue an idea is that you believe you can accelerate through the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop faster than anyone else can. If that is true, it makes no difference what the competition knows. If it is not true, a startup has much bigger problems. Sooner or later, a successful startup will face competition from fast followers. A head start is rarely large enough to matter, and time spent in stealth mode—away from customers—is unlikely to provide a head start. The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.
Many startups plan to invest in building a great brand, and an MVP can seem like a dangerous branding risk.
Similarly, entrepreneurs in existing organizations often are constrained by the fear of damaging the parent company’s established brand. There is an easy solution:Launch the MVP under a different brand name.
The catch to this development technique is that it assumes that early adopters can see the vision or promise of the final product and provide the valuable feedback needed to guide developers forward.
This suggests that technically orientated products used by technical users may be most appropriate for this type of development technique.
Download a minimum viable product (MVP) video here.
Nigerian student test-drive his assembled vehicle
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic (formerly Rivers State Polytechnic) is a tertiary learning institution in Bori City, Khana Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria. It has two campuses, one for the School of Management Sciences and the other for the School of Engineering, it is approved as a state-owned polytechnic by the National Board for Technical Education.
Recently, an engineering student of the school, test-drive his assembled vehicle along with the Rector, Dr Oneniye-Ofori Georgewill.
Read related news…
University students build Nigeria’s first electric car [Photos]
What Nigeria Can Learn From Successful University Innovation Ecosystems
Nigerian youths and Nation-building
Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph is the founder of the Calabar Youth Council for Women’s Rights; a non-governmental organization based in Nigeria that expands access to rights for women by tackling female genital mutilation, gender-based violence, domestic abuse, and promoting access to education for the girl-child.
He was honoured with a Queen’s Young Leaders Award by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of England at the age of 20 for the work he is doing to promote women’s rights in Nigeria, also honoured by President Obama’s YAL Initiative and he is a One Young World Ambassador.
Last week, I mention that the Nigerian youths should try another strategy to solve the contemporary social problems confronting the Nigerian society since then have been asked to mention the strategy.
Take a look at the work of 21-year-old Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph in Cross River State and draw out how you can contribute to the development of the people at grassroots levels to solve the contemporary social problems confronting the Nigerian society.
Nation-building is the responsibility of every Nigerian, including me, not just the responsibility of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Before you join any protest ask yourself what have you contribute to the development of the people at grassroots levels?
Lagos High Court freez Ambode’s accounts over an alleged N9.9 billion fraud
The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the freezing of three bank accounts allegedly linked to the Lagos State government and former governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, over an alleged N9.9 billion fraud following an exparte application brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC).
It should be noted that, Nigerian leaders have been either utterly inept or woefully visionless or both, they are leaders with the visions and policies to transform the nation into an industrialized society, but the system is corrupt and Nigerian political leadership had grown continually in corrupt practices. If we want our leaders to transform the nation into an industrialized society, we must help them kill Nigeria’s first public enemy, CORRUPTION.
The first revolution before Nigerian youth is to eradicate corruption from the system even though we are anti-graft agency and we can’t do this by protests or agitation for change of government when it’s not election period, just one day protest the Naria went up from N358.5 to a dollar at the parallel market in Lagos to N359.
The youth must think of an approach that wouldn’t hurt the economy, at the same time that wouldn’t compromise their objectives, the approach the youth can use is to collaborate with the anti-graft agencies to fight corruption.
Read more…
Alleged N9.9b sleaze fund not mine, says Ambode
Innovation makes business viable
Having an undiluted mindset about creativity in your niche is superb if you put it into use. Your imaginative faculty will blend with changes around your ecosystems if you love what you are doing for living.
Being innovative does not only mean inventing. Innovation can mean changing your business model and adapting to changes in your environment to deliver better products or services.
Innovation
Innovation generally refers to changing processes or creating more effective processes, products and ideas.
It can be a catalyst for the growth and success of your business, and help you to adapt and grow in the marketplace.
Also, innovation can increase the likelihood of your business succeeding. Businesses that innovate create more efficient work processes and have better productivity and performance.
For businesses, this could mean implementing new ideas, creating dynamic products or improving your existing services.
What is innovation to business ?
Business innovation is the creation of new ideas, dynamic products or services to add value to a business and increase sales.
Like wise, business innovation refers to the application of better solutions to meet new requirements or existing needs for smooth functioning of a business.
Successful innovation should be an in-built part of your business strategy, where you create a culture of innovation and lead the way in innovative thinking and creative problem solving.
For every company there are some of the barriers faced by them on there innovative capabilities. They are mentioned infra:
- A lack of differentiation from competitors in geographic areas were trying to attract the best start-ups.
- Slow corporate venturing processes
in tightly regulated industries.- Existing conflicts of interest among the parent company’s CEO, the CVC unit director and the entrepreneur.
- A low level of collaboration between corporate venturing units and business units.
- Tight budget constraints for innovation.
- Problems in balancing the creation of innovation and adoption of the value generated.
Although, executives in charge of innovation still demand principles and best practices to improve their corporate venturing strategies and their implementation because of the novelty of the opportunities and lack of relevant experience.
These professionals still face numerous difficulties when it comes to;
1. Changing the traditional mind-set of their executive committees.
2. Fixing a lack of collaboration between corporate venturing units and business lines.
3. Re-engineering corporate processes that are blocking the integration of value generated by corporate venturing units.
Key steps towards business innovation
Find areas and ways to innovate in your business through research and planning:
1. Conduct an analysis of the trends in the market environment, your customers’ wants and needs and your competitors.
2. Consult with customers and employees for ideas on improving processes, products and services both internally and externally. Find out more about connecting with customers for ideas.
3. Seek advice.
Use available resources such as business advisors, grants and assistance to drive innovation in your business. This may include seeking Intellectual Property (IP) protection to commercialise your ideas. Learn more about local collaboration and international collaboration with researchers.
4. Be open to new ideas and adaptive to change.
5. Develop a strategic, responsive plan, which promotes innovation as a key business process across the entire business. Learn about creating an innovative business culture and developing a strategy for innovation.
6. Train and empower your employees to think innovatively from the top down.
Remember that, innovation is the key to competitive advantage for your business.
Learn more:
There is no country without social problems
According to Kristina Hooper, the chief global market strategist at Invesco.
The risk of a recession in America’s economy has gone up because of the ratcheting up of the trade war.
On Thursday, Trump tweeted that he plans to impose a 10% tariff on the remaining US imports from China and US stocks plummeted on the tweet, a selloff that deepened on Friday.
Cash rushed into ultra-save government bonds, sending Treasury yields to multiyear lows.
Then on Saturday, 20 people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in a mass shooting in Texas and it was said that Trump’s anti-migrant rhetoric led to El Paso shooting, also 9 people were killed and 16 injured in another shooting in Dayton, Ohia today, but no single American asking President Donald Trump to resign or call for a revolution even Trump asked four Democratic congresswomen of colour to leave the States because they criticize his rhetoric and policies.
Mass shootings in the United States.
I wonder what would have happened if one of these congresswomen called for a revolution, without no doubt, the person would be charged with treason and terrorism.
There is no country in the world that doesn’t have contemporary social problems confronting them, we shouldn’t think that the situation in Nigeria is the worse, we should always think positively.
Ways to Make Email Marketing Work For You
Have you ever received one of those forwarded emails that relates a nice story or some inspiring pictures and then lays on a guilt trip if you don’t immediately send that email to a million other people in your sphere of influence. Complete with the same guilt ridden message?Some of these messages even indicate dire consequences or simple bad luck of the recipient somehow breaks the chain in this email link.
I’m never certain who exactly monitors this situation and how they know to exact consequences dire or otherwise.
If you’re like most computer users you have developed a low tolerance level for this type of email. In fact, if observation is true many of these Emails are immediately deleted without even looking at the ‘inspiring’ material within. Alas the chain is broken and beyond the scope of repair.
For some web users there is a heightened sense of frustration because the sender of this material simply uses these methods to attempt to communicate with the recipient.
There are no original words and no questions about the family or job. All the recipient sees is an Email that indicates the sender only cared enough to send junk mail.
This mentality contributes to making email marketing so hard for online businesses.
If it weren’t bad enough that spammers already abuse the system enough now the average Email user is sending junk mail to family and friends and honestly believe they are positively connecting with the recipient.
Is it any wonder that those receiving Email would almost rather click the delete button on an email they don’t recognize than to open spam?
Some web users have gotten to the point where they will only review Emails that are not forwards and from individuals they already know. Junk mail and the potential for viruses make delete our favorite key.
If I might offer a suggestion for those who participate in Email marketing, make sure you name your business and the primary purpose of the email in the subject line.
You may think that you need to make your email subject line extremely creative, but the more straightforward the subject the greater the possibility the email will be reviewed.
You don’t want your recipients to have doubts about what is in the email.
I would also suggest that you remain completely focused on the primary purpose of the Email and offer as many reasons as possible for your recipient to not only review the email, but also drop by the site and take a look around.
Email marketing can be a daunting task because there are so many variables that make this type of marketing harder than it really should be. Spammers created some of these problems and others were created by well meaning individuals who substituted junk mail for meaningful and personal Emails.
Try to make each Email marketing attempt just another attempt at redeeming email marketing as an honest way to reach out to customers and prospects in a cost effective and personally directed way.
Ways to Increase Traffic in Your Website
When starting up your web site there are several things that you need to take into consideration. Chief amongst them is the ability to achieve the traffic level that you need for Success.
Traffic is what will allow you to get your products and services presented to the public. Sustainability of any product or service can be achieve only if the ROI is positive at the long-run.
Therefore, to do this, sales promotions mechanism should be improve from time to time especially through digital means and increasing website traffic.
Let’s start with this;
- You need to realize that not every visitor to your website will be a customer:
Your Goal is to get as many visitors as you can so that you can increase the branding and front of mind awareness to as many potential future clients as possible. Along the way your numbers of actual customer conversions will increase.
By emphasizing brand awareness the recognition you achieve will make the difference in how your visitors and future customers perceive your products and services.
Advertising on the internet is the best way to get traffic to your website to help you achieve your branding goals.
- You need to get as many people to visit as possible each and Every day:
To do this you need to have your website listed and promoted in as many relevant places as possible.
Be prepared to invest the time or resources it takes to accomplish this.
If you want to keep tighter control over the process and the outcome you may want to do as much of this yourself as you can.
Once you get that traffic to your site you want to have a site set up that will turn them into customers. This is vitally important.
- You need to make a Great first impression on potential customers with a professional website:
You don’t just want them to visit, you want them to return.
A couple of good methods for accomplishing this are keeping the site organized with information readily and easily available.
The site should do more than just Display what you are by doing it in a way that is pleasing to customers and makes them want to return.
It should make them want to tell people about you in a positive light.
- Give visitors a reason to listen to what you have to say on your site:
Visitors to your site will form impressions quickly and that is where you need to make a favorable first impression.
If you lose them at this point they will probably be lost forever.
If you get their attention with a well designed site that has content relevant to the traffics interest you may get a customer that returns repeatedly.
- Repeat customers and traffic is what will make your online Business successful:
Make the content and layout of your site easy to quickly digest and follow.
There should not be any mistakes there to turn your traffic away.
It is very important for you to understand how unprofessional a website looks that is filled with design, spelling or grammatical mistakes appears to your visitors.
The first impression you make will either turn your visitor away forever or keep them returning again and again.
To conclude this; Promoting your website is an ongoing effort that has no end. It takes constant adjustments and research, so don’t give up and make a consistent and concerted effort.
Your Call for Revolution Amounts to Treasonable Felony, IGP Tells Sowore
Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, Saturday in Abuja reacted to a video circulating on the social media by the “s,” inciting Nigerians, home and abroad, to join a planned “revolution” march against the Federal Government on August 5, with the sole aim of forcing a regime change in the country.
Adamu unequivocally said such a call “amounts to treasonable felony and acts of terrorism and will therefore not stand idly-by and watch any individual or group in the society cause anarchy in the land.”
While acknowledging the rights of Nigerians to embark on protest, the police chief noted that
“such rights should not translate to a violent and forceful change of government which clearly is the meaning of revolution.”
He added that Nigeria is a democratic republic and has well-defined processes for change of government, exercised periodically during various cycle of elections.
Adamu, in a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, warned
“the organisers, sponsors, allies, supporters, associates and sympathisers of the group ‘Global Coalition…”.
Read the full story here: https://wp.me/paLLz4-1kO
Protection