Plan it right

Nobody jumps in Head first and invests thousands in building a SAAS.

There are thousands of ideas that people think about every day and many of us are too romantic about their ideas and just want to see them happen. But the ugly truth is that ” NO, this is wrong! ” that’s not how you should do things.

First, work out a plan of action or as some call it ” strategy “. A good strategy helps you gradually launch a good SAAS that offers services that people are asking for and want. Here are some quick tips of what your strategy or plan should include:

Market

Market research is essential as it gives you insight on what your audience is looking for and wants. In addition, the research reveals how big the market that you are trying to target is, who are your competitors and what they are offering and how to better target your audience and via which channels. The research also gives you a better picture of the types of product or services your customers need and help you analyze different opportunities and the ones with the highest possible revenue.

Build an MVP and Collect Feedback

Start with an MVP ( Minimum Viable Product ). Build a prototype rather than a complete product as it costs less and has a lesser failure impact than the complete product. Test different the services and the features you are offering and collect users feedback and capitalize on that feedback to improve.

The feedback you collect should answer key questions that affect your product/service or your offering. Some questions you should consider:

• What is the problem you are trying to solve and how big is it on a scale of 1 – 10 ?
• How do you feel if you were to use the solution you are offering ?
• How often will you use your solution ?
• Would you recommend this solution to someone ?

Technologies

Not all technologies are suitable to build your product and not one technology may be enough either; you might to mix things up a little bit. Choosing the right technologies to use is crucial as it will impact your budget and the delivery time. Make sure that your team is familiar with the technologies they want to use and that they are capable of building the product with these technologies while also following a scalable architectural design.

Budget

The main advantage of SaaS is its cost efficiency for serving any number of customers without high-end infrastructure cost. While you are planning, price your product and also consider the cost for development.

Be Agile

Reduce your risks and the time to launch your MVP by going Agile and following a Lean Startup Model. Noah Parson says, “Agile is what most software companies use. Estimate what it’s going to take to get to a working alpha or MVP.” You can learn more about the agile development methodology on Version One’s site.

Keep core development in-house

According to Dharmesh Shah, outsourcing core product development is something most startups shouldn’t try doing as there are many risks involved. And Buffer’s CEO Joel Gascoigne believes much the same thing; according to him, a freelancer’s goals are entirely different to your own. They’re not invested in the product like you are, or perhaps like someone with a stake in the business might be. Plus, they’ll be more likely to think about limiting the scope of the project to the allotted time or budget. I highly recommending checking out Joel’s article as he also gives some actionable tips on what to do instead of outsourcing the development process.