Productized service idea - would anyone pay for this?
Hi fellow bootstrappers. I'm Thomas and new to this site, actually just found it a few days ago. I've been thinking about launching a productized service for quite some time now. Lynne Tye's article (the yellow one from the IH frontpage) encouraged me to ask you for early feedback...
In my everyday job I'm managing a few software dev teams. As many of you know, creating good software products is hard - and each team has its specific strenghts and also improvement potential. How to leverage this potential? Is "we are doing Scrum" good enough?
My idea: provide an easy-to-consume development review service: the customer provides access to the team artifacts (e.g. the backlog, test results, bug reports) and some Skype interview time with the key stakeholders. Based on this input I'll provide a feedback report:
-How is the team doing?
-What process aspects may be improved?
-Changes that could be tried to get the best possible product with the available ressources?
I'd describe the service in more detail and sell it for fixed price T-shirt sizes, say S/M/L.
The evaluation is done based on a checklist for software dev. and scrum best practices that's available on my website for free. Means the service basically consists of the real-life status review for a specific team. Knowing that each client / product / team is different and there is no such thing as a standard - some basic principles always apply.
Do you think there is value in such a service? Would customers pay for this? How would you further validate the idea? Any feedback is appreciated, good or bad, don't hold back. Thank you!!
Cheers, Thomas
As a software engineer scrum incites an allergic reaction for me. What you are pitching sounds like adding another layer on top of something that people already hate. What pain are you solving, and how is it better than something like Jira?
I don't mean to poo on your parade, I am just doubtful.
Good point, I had asked for all kind of feedback..
The pain I would help to improve is the lack of efficiency that sometimes exists in software dev projects - or maybe call it the lack of achieving the desired results in a given time.
I would agree that Scrum and other methods are no silver bullets. Experienced, well alligned teams may have or find their own way of getting to results. However I've seen the value of good processes and use of best practices. I remember the time when we were doing waterfall style development and each of the devs would be done with the module "next week". Only to report a few days later that next week it would definitely be done. Difficult times for a project manager... While agile approaches, CICD and the like have not solved all pain - project life has certainly become much better. For the stakeholders and I guess also for the developers. More transparency, less risk, fewer missed deadlines.
Of course good processes and methods as such don't gurantee success. But especially for larger teams and corporate style settings they can help a lot - if properly applied and adapted to the job do be done. This is where I would help teams and stakeholders.
Does that make sense?
(BTW: Jira is a piece in this puzzle - a tool that will be even more helpful if applied in the right context)
Nice idea. It sounds like a good way to help companies become more efficient, which could help them save time and money and also get products out faster generating money, so i can see value in the idea.
To validate the idea i would reach out to companies and initially offer a free service to get some experience and refine the idea, and also build up some marketing material such as: we found 3 problems that saved Company XYZ 5 hours a week, £10000 a month, and helped them launch 2 months early.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply, this is helpful. Is guess as a next step to validate the idea (even when doing it for free initially) I need to set up a basic landing page with a bit of content to establish credibility, what do you think? After all, a customer will need to provide access to somewhat sensitive information, so that may be some barrier...(?)
You will definitely need a website to scale the company, but for your first few customers, you could just try and phone 10 companies and see if they are interested. If a few ask for your website, say it is under development, and throw something together over the weekend, then try contacting another few companies. The important thing is validating the idea quickly so you know if you should spend more time on it. I am assuming you have a reasonably long list of companies you can contact, if not then it would be safer to create a landing page and try and seem more professional.
In terms of companies to contact, i would start off contacting friends, family, and colleagues, and see if they have any connections that might be interested in the service.
There will be a sensitive information issue, so you should always mention an NDA can be signed.
Hm, as of now I don't have a list of companies to call. Actually I'm rather hesitant to cold call potential customers. I now realize that above all I need to find out where the potential customers for such a service are, and use this as a basis to get in touch and validate the idea. I'm thinking of IT project outsourcing sites, agile coaching forums etc. Thanks for putting me on this track, that was definitely helpful.
You could try and search job websites for scrum and see what comes up. Most will probably be agencies, but you could find some leads. Cold calling is always a bit nerve-racking, but sometimes its good to get out of your comfort zone. At the end of the day you are trying to help the company save time and money. If you can't get a warm introduction from a friend, and are a little worried about cold calls, you could start with cold emails and see what response you get.
It is my pleasure to help you. Feel free to reach out if you have any more questions.