SaaS idea. I need feedback (I'm sure I'm missing something)
Hi everybody! I'm sure you can help me because all of you are awesome :)
I'm thinking about launching a new SaaS. A client asks us to build them a very simple platform to track their company goals (with some game elements, gamification is our expertise). We're bootstrapping and it was easy money for us, so we did it and they are very happy with the result.
So I've been thinking 'Well... this could be an awesome SaaS if we polish it a little bit!'. But I'm doing some initial research and I can't find similar products or direct competitors. I'm sure there are, but I'm from Spain and maybe I don't know the exact words to find that product category.
So I'm asking for help to:
-Get some feedback on the idea.
-Find similar products to do market research.
The product:
It's a goal tracker for small companies.
The CEO can set short-term and mid-term goals (with KPIs and deadlines). These goals are divided into sub-goals and you can assign them to departments or employees. These sub-goals can be divided too. Everybody can track everybody's progress. It's a very transparent tool, so all employees can find a meaning in their daily tasks and understand that their tasks are contributing to achieving a big goal.
You can attach a goal to a bonus salary, so an employee gets feedback about how far is of getting a bonus.
Moreover, the tool includes game elements (you can level up, earn virtual coins, complete a card collection...). This encourages users to achieve goals and use the software.
Why do I think it's different?
-It's simple and easy to use. Perfect for companies looking for a specific solution (not for an enterprise software with a lot of features).
-Game elements. This encourages users to achieve their goals faster and improves the experience.
-Beautiful design and cool UX-UI (At least here in Spain common business software looks like Windows 95).
Why do I think I'm wrong?
I can't believe there isn't anything like that on the market. But I can't find it.
I've only found complex software with a lot of features (such as SuccessFactors or BambooHR). These tools can track goals too, but they include a lot of extra features (Holidays, salaries, days off...) so they can be too much for companies looking for a simpler and specific solution.
So that's all! Thank you very much! You're an awesome community and I'm learning a lot of all you :)
Definitely sounds like something that could be SaaS. Biggest challenge will be adoption though. Since this company commissioned you to make this they already had buy-in from the CEO I imagine. If you're selling this, I think it will be important to think about how adoption spreads throughout the company. If I had to guess, you'll likely be targeting company sizes that are larger rather than a small startup that may be less likely to have that problem
Thanks Joe! :) About how adoption spreads throughout the company, gamification is a huge advantage. We've seen how employees want to use the software, so it's a win-win situation for everybody (employees and bosses).
About the company size, I'm thinking about companies between 15 and 50 employees. Under 15 employees I guess they can manage with Excel sheets, Trello boards, and some meetings. Above 50 employees I guess they need a more complex solution. Anyway, If we keep working on this idea, we'll prepare interviews and surveys to get some insights about that. Thanks a lot! =D
As a validation strategy to really understand what you are missing, try to sell your software to other 5 companies.
Before you build a complete self-service flexible SaaS, try to sell the same software to other companies just like you did for this one.
This will show you how hard will be to find other companies that might want it, to sell to them, to match their demands; and discover the solutions they already have in place for the problem (your competitors, who might not be other SaaS as you think, but other tools like Google Drive or BI dashboard tools)
Great advice man! Thanks! I'm thinking about editing a short video, build a simple landing page, send a newsletter and see what happens. Thanks! :)
Look for OKRs softwares, no gamifiaction component though..
(About my previous message, I'll answer in this textbox to another comment because I'm dumb hahaha). I'll check some OKR tools too! That's not exactly the methodology we want to build but it can be useful anyways. Thanks :)
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Company I work for uses Lattice, super simple but no gamification.
I imagine there's plenty of elbow room in this space - and big monthly price to collect.
Thanks, man! I'm checking Lattice Goals and this is exactly what I was looking for. I'm thinking about something similar but with gamification. If I keep working on this idea I'll contact you. It could be awesome to get your feedback as a Lattice user. Thanks a lot!
Hi Jaime,
In my company we were looking for the same thing (without the gamification component), we spent some time reviewing 15five https://www.15five.com/ It's a tool not only to gather feedback from employee but they have an objective feature that could be fairly close to what you defined.
I think that this is a really cool idea, and definitely something you can sell to a wider market.
Hi! Thanks for your comment. I knew 15five but I've only known the feedback feature, not the goal feature, so thanks a lot! I've just checked and It's similar to our idea but without gamification. Very useful, thanks! :)
I like the idea, though I don’t operate in that space. One thing to consider is your legal obligation if you built the original product for a client. Typically, they retain rights to the IP if they paid you for the project. That might be a non-starter.
The positive side of that relationship is you at least have one other person that sees the idea as having merit. How has that tool done for their team? How is engagement, etc?
Thanks for your feedback! :)
About the legal issues, it's okay. We have an agreement and we can re-use parts of the software to create new software. And it's not going to be the exact same tool because the original software include some in-house processes and we would need a customizable software. But thanks for the tip ;)
About the engagement, it's awesome. I've received emails asking if there are any cheats to earn more coins (They have to earn coins to buy a virtual random card and complete a 150 card collection. Each card has a funny illustration and a funny description. And there's a ranking with the best collections). They are really hooked haha.
This comment was deleted 8 years ago