G98b Product Development (9)

#1 (Incorporation)

Finalize incorporation if you have not yet formed a Corporate Entity. At this point, you should have all of the agreements completed and filed with the government to form a Corporate Entity. If you are behind on anything relating to Incorporation or at risk of missing the mandatory Incorporation Deadline, email your Local Leaders with a status update and provide a copy of the email. Email your Law Firm for an update on your Formation Plan. As soon as you receive confirmation from the government that the Corporate Entity has been formed, then sign, scan and upload the Equity Collective agreements to the Founder Institute web site under “Account.” Write one sentence to update on each step of the Formation Plan, and label a completed step as “DONE” with the date completed. (1 Hour)

#2 (Growth)

Make progress on your Weekly Growth Goals. Write a couple of sentences on how you achieved or missed your Weekly Growth Goals from the previous week. Write a sentence that examines how the system to keep yourself accountable is performing, and make necessary adjustments to the system. Spend time to meet or exceed your Weekly Growth Goals for the current week. If you need to adjust your Weekly Growth Goals, provide the updated set of goals with a couple of sentences on why the adjustment was necessary. (4 Hours)

#3 (Intellectual Property)

Secure and protect the intellectual property for all of the work that you have done to date. Mark all of your work products with a copyright notice, such as “Copyright ©[year], MyCompany, Inc. – All rights reserved.” Mark any sensitive information with the label “Confidential Information, MyCompany, Inc.” Provide a bulleted list of the key work products and documents that you have marked. Provide a bulleted list with the names, email addresses and roles of everyone that you have asked to do measurable work on your company, such as your Design Resource, and have each individual sign an appropriate agreement for the role that assigns the intellectual property that they have developed for the company. (2 Hours)

#4 (Patents)

Examine the Patent landscape for your solution. Identify which portions of your product may have specialized or novel elements which could be patented. Perform your own online patent search on the US, EU or any other applicable patent office’s website, using the process recommended by the US patent office (https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/support-centers/patent-and-trademark-resource-centers-ptrc/resources/seven). Write down the names and numbers of any patents that are related to your product. Identify one Mentor, Advisor,CEO or CTO of a startup in a related industry that has successfully filed patents. Reach out to them and set up a 20 minute call to discuss their intellectual property strategy. During the call, ask about the need, the process, the costs, the advantages and the disadvantages of securing a Patent. Provide a bulleted list of the notes from each meeting. If you are uncertain that you should proceed, arrange a 30 minute free consultation with a registered patent agent or patent lawyer. Write a couple of sentences that explains your decision to either pursue or abandon a Patent. If you decide to proceed with a Patent, write a bulleted list of steps, along with deadlines, that you will take to secure a Patent over the next few months. (2 Hours)

#5 (Solution Goals)

Develop your Solution Goals. Write a couple of sentences to evaluate the current state of your solution and all of the feedback that you have received from customers. Provide a bulleted list of the three Solution Goals that you would like the Next Releases to solve for your target customers over the next year. Make the Solution Goals measurable and easy to understand. Sample Solution Goals may be “to help my target customer find a rental property in less than 24 hours” or “to provide information on cryptocurrency transactions within 10 milliseconds of a closing.” You want to achieve the Solution Goals with the least amount of work possible and the least amount of technology. (1 Hour)

#6 (Project Team)

Set up a Project Team to create the solution. Spend time to reflect on what are the optimal skills required to create your solution based on the Solution Goals, and start organizing the skills into Roles. Provide a bulleted list of all Roles that are required to develop the solution, including the name of the Role and a couple of sentences on what the Role will provide. Identify any Team Members that you currently have or that you can quickly acquire to fill the Roles, which can include vendors, freelancers or Advisors. If you have the Team Member identified for a Role, provide their name and compensation next to the Role. Ensure that all Team Members sign documentation to assign the intellectual property rights for their work to you and the company. If you need to use any vendors or freelancers, consult with any relevant Advisor Candidates to validate that this is an appropriate approach. If the Advisor Candidates validate the approach, then provide a bulleted list of at least a couple Project Vendors with a link to their website, and start a process to interview each Project Vendor and secure a quote. You can see a list of FI Preferred Software Vendors at https://fi.co/guides/1341 (3 Hours)

#7 (Product Roadmap)

Develop a Product Roadmap. Reflect upon what you need to create in order to meet your Solution Goals with your Project Team. Purchase or acquire sticky notes and colored markers. Write down the various “Features” that are present in the Selected Project on the sticky notes. Then, organize the sticky notes by moving them around on a wall into logical “Groups,” such as “Registration” or “Search.” Rank all the Features in each Group by priority: (Priority 1) absolutely necessary, (Priority 2) wait to next version, (Priority 3) nice to have. Stick your most important Group of Features first on the wall, and then organize the other Groups by importance from left to right with the most important Group and most important Feature on the top left. Organize Features by level of importance into “Releases”, such as “Beta” or “Version 1.” Turn the physical Product Roadmap into a digital version, like this sample (http://fndri.com/yVKzvp), and provide the link. (2 Hours)

#8 (Project Plan)

Create a Project Plan for the next three months. Fine tune the Releases in your Product Roadmap to be as simple as possible to test one hypothesis of the business. Each Release should take approximately two weeks to complete using your available resources and Team Members. If you do not have a professional Mockup of your hardware or software solution, then developing this Mockup must be your Next Release. You may consider doing a ‘Concierge MVP’ as a Next Release, where you deliver the solution on the back end using human labor rather than using automated processes. Provide a bulleted list of the 6 next sequential Releases from the Project Roadmap with the name of the Release and a couple sentence description. Evaluate each Release based on the appeal to your Customer Archetype, the ability to help you achieve your Key Performance Indicators and the ability to prove a hypothesis about the market, your solution or the customer. Rank order the Releases based on this analysis. Update your Product Roadmap to reflect the changes to the Releases. (2 Hours)

#9 (Development Tools)

Secure any necessary Development Tools. Research any tools, technologies or systems that you will need to create your solution and to manage the process of developing your solution. Common Development Tools include team communication, document sharing, prototyping tools, design tools, database management, development environments, bug tracking, source code repositories and hosting providers. Consult with the relevant Advisor Candidates on their recommended Development Tools. Provide a bulleted list of all of the Development Tools that you think you need to create the solution, and provide the name and the link for all items that you have selected. Share the list with your Working Group and solicit feedback, and update the Development Tools with any feedback received. If you are receiving quotes from Project Vendors, get the list of Development Tools that they will use when working with you. (3 Hours)

#10 (Next Release Plan)

Plan your Next Release. Write a paragraph that describes to your Project Team the details about your next release. Write a couple of sentences about the timing for completion of the Next Release that includes a description of any processes to evaluate the progress over time. Provide a bulleted list of the Features in your Next Release, and write one sentence that describes each Feature, assigning each Feature to a Team Member, if applicable. In addition, add any instructions on how a particular Feature might work if that is necessary for a Team Member to create the Feature. Send this Next Release Plan to your Project Team, which may include Project Vendors, and immediately start work. (2 Hours)

#11 (Select Advisors)

Select your Advisors. Selecting the right Advisors to join your Advisory Board is very important. Check in with each of your three top Advisor Candidates on the Advisor Test Project to collect the deliverable, and rate the deliverable on a scale of 1 to 5. Update your rating of the strength of your personal chemistry and of the ability to help the business for each top Advisor Candidate based on your interactions. Review your ratings and your notes for each of the top Advisor Candidates in the Startup, Industry and Technology or Marketing categories. If you have any doubts at all about the value of an Advisor Candidate, eliminate them from the Advisor Target List and initiate Advisor Follow-up with the next qualified candidate. Write a couple of sentences on why you select or eliminate each of the Advisor Candidates to join your Advisory Board. Review the decision to select an Advisor with your Working Group, and provide a bulleted list of any feedback below the previous sentences. Write an email to each Selected Advisor stating that you would like to briefly speak with them about joining your Advisory Board, and set up a short Advisor Closing Call. The Advisor Closing Call and the creation of the Advisory Board is covered in the next assignment. (2 Hours)

#12 (Progress Review)

Prepare for the Mentor Progress Review. This coming week, you will present your business in front of a panel of Mentors, and you will be reviewed on (1) the progress with your product offering, (2) the skill of presentation and (3) the completeness of your model. To prepare, first, update your Pitch Deck to present your business in under five minutes using tips from this Guide (https://fi.co/guides/1071). Next, practice pitching your business with and separately without the Pitch Deck three times each, and write a bulleted list of the improvements that you make with each pitch. Lastly, practice the pitch with your Working Group and incorporate any feedback into the pitch and into the Pitch Deck, and paste an accessible link to the Pick Deck in your profile and here. (3 Hours)

#13 (Weekly Update)

Provide an update on your weekly business progress. Copy the previous Weekly Update and mark all items that have been completed or Asks that have been fulfilled as “(DONE).” Mark anything that has not been completed or fulfilled as “(UNDERWAY),” and provide a one sentence update on their status. Add a few more bulleted items to be completed across Team, Product, Traction and Program for the coming week. (30 Minutes)

#14 (Office Hours)

Report on your Office Hours. Provide three bullet points of feedback and notes from the Office Hours you held with a Mentor or Local Leader last week or this week. (30 Minutes)

Reading

• Lean Analytics Book | Use data to build a better startup fasterThe Lean Analytics book is a practical, how-to for applying Lean Startup principles. It will help you understand some of the biggest challenges in building a startup including your business model, the stage you’re at and what metrics you should track and when. The book provides many examples and case studies, and is best used as a reference guide while building your startup.
• How To Bring A Product To Market Interview With Sean EllisSean Ellis was previously first marketer at Dropbox, Lookout, Xobni, LogMeIn (IPO), and Uproar (IPO). Also interim marketing exec roles at Eventbrite, Socialcast, and Webs.
• All about Network Effects – Andreessen Horowitz

Required

• The Product Design Sprint

Resources

• Slides: Product Development – Ted Bowman
• Salesforce Startup Software ToolsStartup software and tools to build apps, grow customers and give back to your community.
• Free HTML & CSS Class (Udemy)Are you an entrepreneur with zero coding experience? – Learn the basics of web development with this beginners course!
• ProgresslyShared repository for business knowledge.
• CreatelyAlways on easy diagramming on the cloud. Easily draw diagrams online using Creately’s online diagramming tool.
• ProtoShareCreate mockups, wireframes and prototypes for websites, mobile and applications using ProtoShare.
• Pivotal TrackerA lightweight & agile project management tool for software teams. Also, get 30-day Free Trial.
• SnapPagesEasily to create, build and manage a professional quality website with drag-and-drop simplicity.
• Turn-Key Landing PagesTurn Key Product Development for Marketing Funnels and Landing Pages that Convert. ClickFunnels Gives You EVERYTHING You Need To Market, Sell, and Deliver Your Products and Services Online! (Without Having To Hire or Rely On A Tech Team!)
• Process FlowsThe purpose of this document is to sketch the process flows of the Bundled.com components.

Submitted

• Turn Key Product Development for Marketing Funnels and Landing Pages that ConvertClickFunnels Gives You EVERYTHING You Need To Market, Sell, and Deliver Your Products and Services Online!” (Without Having To Hire or Rely On A Tech Team!)
• Product Development Catalin Mester
• Product Development Gabriel Paunescu
• Product Development Laurentiu Balasa
• Balsamiq. Rapid, effective and fun wireframing software. | BalsamiqBalsamiq is the company behind Balsamiq Wireframes, the industry standard low-fidelity wireframing tool.
• Figma: the collaborative interface design tool.A better way to design. Design, prototype, and gather feedback all in one place with Figma.
• Intercom on Product ManagementCustomer-led advice on how to make your product better.
• Link