InnoFest 2016 – Innovation celebrated in Bangalore, and how…

Robots, Drones, Electric Bikes, 3D printers, Modular Homes – It’s all Happening in India – #IndiaInnovates

The Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable (iSPIRT), a think tank dedicated to the cause of the Indian Product Industry, held its flagship event InnoFest 2016 in Bengaluru. This unique event was inaugurated by Mr. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of the Board, Manipal Global Education. The one day long festival focused on hardware innovation encompassed inspirational talks by industry leaders, sessions by key innovators, a panel discussion, a product showcase, workshops, a DIY pavilion and makerspaces. Mr. Mohandas Pai and Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Co Founder Paytm, delivered the opening address.

InnoFest 2016 had over 1200 registered participants and showcased 150 products and innovations. The event featured 10 Workshops, 12 DIY Pavilion participants and 2 Community projects, wherein the audience could actively participate. Over 35 Speakers addressed the huge gathering of budding innovators, manufacturers, techies, entrepreneurs, students, professors, researchers and representatives from the financial sector. A significant number of participants were women entrepreneurs and innovators.

In his keynote and inaugural address Mr. Mohandas Pai, said, “More often than you think, innovations are stemmed from an idea that provides a solution to recurring and nagging problems that you may face personally. To translate that idea into a product and a business, requires an eco-system to support it and reach-out to the markets. InnoFest provides that platform and unlocks a plethora of opportunities. It is imperative that successful innovators need to foster other innovators and harvest benefits collectively. I’m elated to say that InnoFest is turning out to be a hub for innovation led entrepreneurs.”

InnoFest 2016 showcased exciting innovations such as a Sumo wrestling Robot, electric bikes, modular portable micro housing units, a 3D selfie maker, digital microscopy, 3D printers, pop up makerspace, farming tools, healthcare devices, education products, green energy equipment, environment related products were just the tip of the iceberg.

InnoFest also had a host of mentors who were available throughout the day to have a one-on-one discussion with participants. A workshop focused on providing a clear understanding of Entrepreneurship for early entrepreneurs and novice entrepreneurs was a runaway hit.

A key element that innovators grapple with is Funding, InnoFest featured a session on funding resources for early stage Hardware Entrepreneurs, Crowd Funding, Challenges in obtaining Grants and Equity Funding.

With the Make in India movement gaining momentum a session on Building Hardware Businesses in India/from India, enlighten the participants.

Mr. Sharad Sharma, Co-Founder of iSPIRT and Convenor of InnoFest, said, “India is on the cusp of a business revolution. We are going to see a spurt in the manufacturing sector addressing basic human needs air, water and food. Today’s innovators are going to be the leaders tomorrow. Events such as InnoFest will be pivotal in providing a jump-start to budding entrepreneurs.”

The Patrons of this event were Mr. Amitabh Kant CEO, NITI Aayog; Mr. Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Government of India; Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Former Chairman of Infosys and Former Chairman of UIDAI; Mrs. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon and Mr. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of the Board, Manipal Global Education.

InnoFest was concieved as a day-long festival of ideas and inspiration that will exponentially multiply innovation across the country and make India into a Product Nation. Our research shows that there is a need for a strong support ecosystem for hardware innovators similar to that available to software innovators. InnoFest seeks to bring together the multitude of partners needed to build such platform that encourages and supports grassroots innovators from ideation to realization to growth. iSPIRT strongly believes that a robust product ecosystem is the key to rapid growth across the country.

#IndiaInnovates

09/12/201609/12/2016

Industry 4.0: The New Normal

In case you are a manufacturing company beginning to explore how investment into Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things could help your top and bottom lines, you may already have fallen behind. The fourth industrial revolution or the ‘Industry 4.0’ is already upon us and the opportunities to completely transform the way we carry out production are limitless. Industry 4.0 may be broadly defined as a collective term for a number of contemporary automation, data exchange and manufacturing technologies. It is characterised by a diminishing boundary between the cyber and physical systems to enhance productivity and reduce costs. ‘Smart’ and ‘Connected’ are two of the most important keywords in the new industry universe. Smart takes us into the domain of Artificial Intelligence (AI) while ‘Connected’ is more a purview of ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT).

‘Smart’ – A detour into Artificial Intelligence

AI finds its roots way back in 1956 when the name ‘Artificial Intelligence’ was adopted or even further back with Alan Turing in 1950 or in 1943 when McCulloch & Pitts introduced the Boolean circuit model of brain. It’s still however, a little difficult to settle on one universal definition of AI. For our purpose we may define AI as the development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence. These may include (but are not limited to) visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. More passionate people define AI as the ability to ‘solve new problems’.

The lack of one single definition has not detracted investors from recognizing the potential of AI and they have been pouring in money like never before. As per Zinnov Consulting, in the last 5 years alone, investments in AI have grown ten-fold from USD 94 million in 2011 to USD 1billion in 2016. As per CB Insights, the equity investments in AI were North of USD 2 billion in both 2014 and 2015. We may attribute different ways of defining AI to different investment figures, however we can agree that investments have sky rocketed. While, Venture capital firms have obviously been at the forefront in backing early stage companies, the high corporate interest in acquiring AI start-ups has also led to a buzz in the M&A markets. Some of the biggest acquirers in AI include Google, Apple, Salesforce, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel and IBM.

India is holding its own in terms of AI related action. As per Zinnov, India has emerged as the 3^rd largest AI ecosystem in the world with 170 start-ups. Niki.ai, SnapShopr, YANA, HealthNextGen, Aindra Systems, Hire Alchemy are some of the notable firms trying to disrupt the value chain across sectors. Global technology companies have acquired more than half-a-dozen India based AI start-ups in the last 18 months. It’s not all one way traffic. Indian IT services firms like Infosys (UNSILO, Cloudyn, TidalScale) and Wipro (Vicarious, Vectra Ventures) have been looking for targets abroad to augment their AI capabilities.

Table 1: AI use cases across sectors

‘Connected’ – the Industrial IoT

The Industrial Internet of Things refers to the network of equipment which includes a very large volume of sensors, devices and “things” that produce information and add value to the manufacturing processes. This information or data acts a feed to the AI systems. As per Cisco, 50 billion devices will be connected by 2020 and 500 billion by 2030. McKinsey projects that IoT will generate 11% of global GDP by 2025. This is driven by optimising industry performance and cost efficiencies.

IIoT on the Factory Floor

The global IIoT spending is estimated at USD 250 billion and is expected to reach USD 575 billion by 2020. The key components of the IIoT ecosystem include sensors/modules, connectivity, customisation, and platform/IoT cloud/applications.

As per NASSCOM, The Indian IoT market is expected to reach USD 15 billion with 2.7 billion units by 2020 from the current USD 5.6 billion and 200 million connected units. This is expected to be largely driven by applications in manufacturing, automotive and transportation and logistics.

In India, the IIoT segment has caught the attention of the largest manufacturers. In November 2016, Reliance and GE announced a partnership to work together to build applications for GE’s Predix platform. The partnership will provide industrial IoT solutions to customers in industries such as oil and gas, fertilizers, power, healthcare and telecom. Mahindra & Mahindra’s uses bots to build car body frames at its Nashik plant. Plants operated by Godrej and Welspun use the Intelligent Plant Framework provided by Covacis Technologies to run their factory floors.

Industry 4.0 is an exciting phase and the possibilities seem limitless. The Indian government is trying to play its part through the Digital India mission. It is positively driving various government projects such as smart cities, smart transportation, smart grids, etc. which are also expected to further propel the use of IoT technology. It is imperative for the promoters and companies in the manufacturing segment to find their place in the new digital world order through organic or inorganic investment.

This is a guest post by Arvind Yadav,

Principal at Aurum Equity Partners LLP.

08/12/201608/12/2016

FirstHive @PNGrowth2016

‘Omwana ni wa bhone’ – a famous African proverb meaning: “ Regardless of a child’s biological parents, its upbringing belongs to the community”

A cold November morning, we drove down to Devanhalli on the outskirts of Bangalore, having blocked three days to be a part of PNGrowth2016. Reading about the previous version of PNGrowth & the regular updates coming in from Avinash, we could not wait to be there. We were hungry to learn from the journeys of Indian products that traversed the same path successfully.

We reached the venue around 9 am and it could not have been a better start – a cup of hot tea, networking with the other founders from across the sub continent and some french cricket to break the ice (more so when we won our match! :)). The formal sessions kicked off with Shankar / Aneesh / Pallav / Shekhar / Girish setting up the context and inspiring to see the passion from Sharad for achieving iSpirit’s vision. It was already clear what mammoth effort must have gone into bringing together such stellar leaders from the the Indian Product startup space in a single room. I realised that while our asses might get kicked in these three days by this group, we were definitely going back with actionable learnings to help us grow 10X!

FirstHive was part of the Global SMB cohort with 12 other founders. With Girish (FreshDesk) and Suresh (KissFlow) as our coaches, we could not have asked for anyone better! Shankar and Aneesh took us through this session by filling in the framework for their business with generous inputs from Girish. “Bullshit!” – this word resonated many a times in the conference room that first session in various cohorts but it was accompanied by sharp inputs & perspective by the respective cohort mentors! I loved this concept so much, we are using it @FirstHive in our meetings 🙂 (hopefully we will slowly not have to use it that often!). The frameworks given to succinctly define our value prop stumped many of us, led to much introspection among most founders.

As we got past the critical “Who Am I?” question, Girish and Aneesh took to the stage and walked us through what does 10X scale look like. They challenged us to imagine and define this for our respective products. Metrics and mistakes shared with respect to their growth stories made this session very relatable and actionable. The insights on the Top of the Funnel drops (TOFU), Middle of Funnel leakages (MOFU), and closure challenges, including delving into sales challenges, team structures, compensation best practices were invaluable. For us at FirstHive, this session could not have come at a better time as our internal goal was to scale 3X in 2017!

Manav and Shekhar sessions following this on sizing your market was interesting, because it gave us two different ways to look at the market, product expansion, TAM and how success can be achieved. The impact of market size on the size of your business was a recurring lesson and the important of defensibility forced us to evaluate the ‘hard to replicate’ levers for our business. There was also the quintessential point on timing that Shekhar went into and how different companies dealt with this. The learnings from Aneesh on how he created his sales plan and achieved success in new markets with Capillary, Girish speaking of the challenges faced in scaling Freshdesk, and Suresh sharing the sales process that worked for him at KissFlow, Shekhar walking us through how a VC potentially looks at businesses or sectors, Pallav walking us through everything including factors that aid the result oriented culture at FusionCharts were invaluable.

Nags (24/7) and Raghu (Taxi4Sure) walked us through their respective successes and a good glimpse into what rapid scaling could mean. Phani (RedBus) spoke to culture, defensibility of a low margin business, speaking of how and his team travelled in buses (to ensure they eat their own dog food at RedBus) and Sanjay Anandram’s story of passion to coming back to India to ignite the nascent startup industry and Sanjay Deshpande’s journey in deep tech were inspirational. Mohit’s story of how Carwale happened and culture was absolutely amazing and how important culture was to building an organisation from an idea. Pallav helped our cohort with his examples of product / market choices and culture and we found comfort in his point that sometimes good choices are retrospectively self-evident. But most founders were probably in a similar state as us – optimistic, a little confused but above all, very hungry to succeed that led to innovation & jugaad.

The whole event was wrapped up with each of the founders presenting a curated pitch to their respective cohorts which was followed by a peer review. Some of us including FirstHive were given the opportunity to present in front of all the cohorts which helped us get some more feedback. But my note will be incomplete without a mention of the fantastic after event party where everyone hung out, loads of informal interaction & some collaboration opportunities were identified. It also would not have been easy for everyone to take three days off from their businesses & families to spend time grooming potential future success stories like FirstHive and for this we shall remain indebted to them.

Growth Hacking after PNgrowth

We left the venue very very tired (less than 8 hours of sleep in 3 days) but our hearts were pounding & our minds were brimming with ideas – thanks to a wealth of new information, learnings that we had to internalise and apply to our business. We had to put together a 45 day GrowthHack plan for FirstHive incorporating as many ideas as we could from PNGrowth! So we set out three days of sessions with our leadership – our VP Engineering, VP Products and our VP Sales. We did similar exercises, used the frameworks, shouted out BullShit many times and eventually got to a plan for FirstHive! We are now pursuing a master list of 8 initiatives across the company: Our singular goal – get ready for 3X growth in 2017!

iSPIRT’s mission is to transform India into a nation where the best of breed global products will germinate from and with PNGrowth they have truly provided us at FirstHive and all the others who were there, with the tools to go ahead & take “ pandas in the global marketplace. We hope to say our thanks by making FirstHive a leader in the B2C Cross Channel Marketing space. If there is one thing that was exceptional about PNGrowth, to me it was True learning – No halos, no facades, no bullshit! Honest dialogues with real examples from folks who traversed the same path which were are on today. The willingness of these founders to openly share their internal growth numbers and metrics that can help us benchmark our business, sharing with us mistakes made to ensure that we do not repeat those – this was truly ‘Omwana ni wa bhone’ in practice.

02/12/201602/12/2016

How UPI is more convenient & secure than what most people think

A phenomenon that has been pretty popular recently in the news goes by the name of UPI (Unified Payments Interface). However, most people have not been able to experience the revolution and the magic moment that comes along when paying via it. Part of that stems from the myths that keep floating around, regarding how it might not be that secure and worthwhile. Well, allow me to put all of these doubts at ease through this post.

Let us take all the salient features of UPI one by one –

Bye-bye long account numbers and IFSC codes

Convenience factor

Now, there is no need to ask anyone for their account numbers or IFSC codes when sending or receiving money. Apart from the fact that remembering long account numbers and IFSC codes is cumbersome, entering those on a small screen / app is painful (especially considering that the user experience of banking websites and apps is mostly terrible).

Of course, the question is now what replaces these 2 if they are not in the picture any more. Say hello to virtual address (which looks like sunnyrohit@ybl where the first part is a unique ID set by you and the second part is determined by the bank/app which processes your payments). This virtual address is automatically mapped to your bank account by NPCI when you register for the first time.

Security factor

The first thing to observe is that since you no longer need to share your account details (Number and IFSC code) with anyone, hence they are completely hidden from everyone else.

Secondly, what this process does is that it takes your user level identification to a more abstract level where the virtual address (or in our case – mobile number) becomes the key information to know or share with anyone. And sharing it is completely harmless as a common person cannot extract any info from that.

Send and receive money instantly, 24*7 and even on a holiday

Convenience factor

Needless to say that this is a game changer, especially in this new economy where demonetization has brought cash to a near standstill and banks/ATMs are clogged up. Not to mention that when sending / receiving money, we don’t even need to think what day and time it may be.

Security factor

Actually, UPI is built on the existing layer of IMPS (Immediate payment service) which has been running smoothly since 2010. Hence, the key thing to note here is that the basic security concepts have stood the test of time for 6 years now. Not to mention that they have improved along the way and many more locks as well as checks have been added on top.

Linked exclusively to your mobile device

Convenience factor

This is a no brainer as everybody has their personal mobile with them 24×7. And it is also the first device that we think of nowadays when receiving / sharing anything on a speedy basis.

Also not to worry, you can link multiple bank accounts as well with the same virtual address. As well as un-link / delete account at any point of time.

Security factor

Firstly, it is important to remember that your virtual address gets mapped to your device exclusively. Now couple this with the fact that for making any payment (peer to peer and peer to merchant), you need to enter your M-pin (a secure 6 digit pin set by you for the first time), and then you can see how it is a perfect closed loop.

Even if anybody gets hold of your device, they cannot do anything until or unless they have your M-pin. Similarly, for resetting your M-pin, you would need your debit card details (completely separate from your device information for security reasons)

No minimum amount. A single user can do 5 transactions totalling up to Rs. 1 Lac daily

Convenience factor

Taking all common scenarios, a total amount of Rs. 1 lac is good enough to cover all your daily needs be it online / offline. And again the number of transactions can easily be covered within the limit of 5 per person. Hence, yay to good lifestyle needs!

Security factor

These velocity checks also ensure that nobody can wipe out or cause any major havoc in anyone’s bank account (although as we discussed, the chances of any data compromise are next to nothing).

Also, remember that all these aspects and features are valid for non-banking UPI apps (like ours) that have partnered with a bank or individual bank’s UPI apps as well

In today’s age of lightning speed information and open access, keep no room for confusions or myths in your life. It is time to embrace the change and be a part of a much more awesome and well-built economic infrastructure via UPI.

Guest Post by Rohit Taneja, Mypoolin, @sunnyboyrohit

01/12/201606/12/2016

India Inc Version 2: Disruptive, Agile, Confident and… ready to Go Global

The growing internet penetration has fuelled India’s start-up ecosystem, which is now the third biggest in the world. US-based Compass (Startup Genome), in its 2015 report, puts Bangalore as the world’s second fastest growing start-up ecosystem. There is a massive opportunity within the $2 trillion Indian economy owing to the consumption fuelled by 1.3 billion Indians and a good number of Indian start-ups are focusing on that. In fact, 7 of the 9 Indian unicorns are focusing on the domestic consumption story.

However the $150bn Indian IT services industry tells us that it is very important to look outside of your home market to create a world leading organization. Most large Indian IT companies derive 75% of their revenue from the US and Europe; and that allows them to create industry leading best practices besides scale, maturity and an innovative edge to enter the top global league. The new generation Indian tech product companies need to take a leaf out of these successful Indian enterprises.

Here are some of examples of how Indian product technology companies are challenging their global peers –

“Made in India, Made for the World” Zoho has over 20 million users across the globe, and is gunning to reach the 100 million users mark currently..

RateGain works with 12,000 hotels worldwide to help them enhance their revenue and optimize their inventory.

Chennai-based Indix has the world’s largest product database now – 50,000 brands and over 700 million products.

Mumbai-based fintech and cybersecurity company, Seclore, has created one of the most secure enterprise rights management systems in the world.

India Emerging Twenty (IE20) aims to discover the next 20 most promising Indian companies to go global and provide them the visibility and platform to help them make a mark in the global arena. This unique programme is led by London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s inward investment company which has a proven track record working with over 2000 international businesses.

IE20 – Catapulting businesses to the global stage

Last year, 222 Indian companies nominated themselves for the inaugural edition of the IE20. Winners included companies of all shapes and sizes – from organisations turning over a few hundred thousand in top-line ($$ of course), to others touching $100 million. From IT services companies employing thousands of staff, to lean and mean start-ups growing into adouble digit head count. Many of the winners (including Seclore, RateGain and Indix) are already pioneers in their space; while others are positioning themselves to challenge their global peers. From “Battle-tested Cybersecurity solutions” to companies collaborating with global universities to discover the next big thing in genomics, these companies reflect the new wave of a global technology ecosystem – disruptive technologies that will transform our lives and the way we do our business.

The programme is supported by BDO, Newland Chase, Santander UK plc, Lalit Hotels and the UK’s Department for International Trade.

Program qualifiers

Companies registered in India OR those registered outside of India having a majority Indian management.

Companies should have worked with global clients, and/ or have products suited for global markets. Having an international presence isn’t necessary.

Established after year 2000 and should have global ambitions.

Selection process and benefits

The selection process, spanning over a period of 20 weeks, will assess companies on the basis of three broad parameters – global scalability, innovation and differentiation and performance. Companies need to nominate themselves for the programme using the application form (link). ValueNotes, the knowledge partner, will use their 3-stage assessment framework and a robust rating model to ensure a high quality selection of the top 50 companies. These companies will be invited to make a brief presentation before a panel of business experts, who will then select the final top-20. . The panel round will be held in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi in late January/early February 2017..

The selected 20 companies will be felicitated and awarded, which will help them gain international recognition – critical to global expansion. The awards programme will also offer opportunities to network with investors, business heads, thought leaders and mentors of global repute. Courtesy of Air India, all 20 companies will be flown to London to participate in a high impact business programme during London Technology Week, in June 2017.

The nomination process has already begun and the last date to send in your nomination is 16th December 2016. For more details, visit www.indiaemerging20.com

Guest post by Gautam Sehgal, Chief Representative, India, London & Partners International

29/11/201629/11/2016

Story of an iSPIRT Volunteer.

I am Taron Mohan, CEO of NextGen Tele and an iSPIRT Volunteer. I usually meet many CXOs of Banks for selling mobile-SIM-overlay based financial inclusion solutions. This one time I was on an email thread with the CEO of a big Public Sector Bank with other iSPIRTers. The discussion was about India-Stack. In my entrepreneurial zeal, I pitched my NextGen Tele SIM-based solution. I quickly realized that this was a mistake. I knew instinctively that I should not use an iSPIRT session to further my own private self-interests. iSPIRT’s credibility comes from Volunteers like me putting India first. While working for iSPIRT we set aside our personal gains for a larger cause of building a Product Nation.

I’m now an advocate for all of us Volunteers signing a Volunteer Code-of-Ethics that sets clear expectations from all of us. This would help us maintain the high standard that we all hold ourselves to. So, working with the iSPIRT Fellows Council we drafted the Volunteer Code-of-Ethics. I have signed it and will abide by it. I plan to even assert my iSPIRT Volunteer Code-of-Ethics in my email signature.

iSPIRT Volunteer Code-of-Ethics

As an iSPIRT Volunteer, I am committed to making India a Product Nation. At no point in time, I shall use my iSPIRT Volunteer status to further my private or business interests. I hope to set a high ethical standard and be an example to others.

On Behalf of the Fellows Council –
Manjunath Nanjaiah, Thiyagarajan(Rajan) & Sharad.

23/11/201623/11/2016

Minimum Viable Technology (MVT) — Move Fast & Keep Shipping

Technology teams can be the biggest asset or worst bottleneck for a growing company based on the strategy taken by them. In name of future proofing engineering, the technology teams become a hurdle to company’s goals. You can see the ‘hidden frustration” in Bezos words below ..

Engineers should be fast acting cowboys instead of calm clear-headed computer scientists — Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO, Amazon

Rampant Problem in Industry: When the task is to build a bike, the product and technology teams would plan for a product, which can later run on motor, seat four people, sail in sea and even fly in the future. This hypothetical building of castle in air, digresses the focus from the real problem to be fixed. This is what Bezos is suggesting to refrain from, as it wastes resources and agonizingly delays the time to market.

Being defensive, the Product/Technology teams usually build a cannon for killing a bird.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) philosophy evolved, to avoid this “unnecessarily over-thinking and over-preparation” problem which plagued products in all companies. It encouraged building the minimum required at a certain point of time and then iterating and improving it going forward. MVP approach enables much needed fast experimentation, fail fast and invest where needed strategy.

No such philosophy evolved for Technology. Therefore, the decades old defensiveand paranoid philosophy still prevails (which was much needed during older 1–2 year long waterfall releases). This becomes competitive disadvantage for startups usually fighting for survival or growing fast.

Fundamental problem is that the engineers blindly copy the large company’s strategies, considering them to be the standard. Corporate and startups differ widely on their needs of scale, brand, speed, impact of a feature, loss by a bug, etc. Startups enjoy more freedom to make mistakes and that they should exploit to their benefit.

Strategies used in big companies are more often irrelevant and even detrimentalto a small growing company’s interests.

Minimum Viable Technology: The solution to above problems is to Build the Minimum Technology, that makes the product and its foreseeable further iterations Viable. Make it live a.s.a.p. and then iterate and improve it based on real usage learnings. Every company is in different stage of evolution. Something that is MVT for a big company, can be over-engineering for startups.

If the task is to kill a bird, we should build a catapult/small-gun to begin with. If that becomes successful and there is a need to kill more or bigger animals, then bigger-guns/cannons should be built as required.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. ~ Peter Drucker

Startups experiment a lot and only a few of them sustain the test of time. As per 80–20 rule, only those 20% successful ones should get deeper technology investments.

Principles of Minimum Viable Technology (MVT):

MVP + MVT + Agile is the complete package.

MVP is for product scope minimisation. MVT is for technology scope minimisation. Agile is for iterative technology execution.

Most decisions can be reversed or fixed easily. Choose wisely by bucketing the decision properly into reversible or non-reversible. And judiciously decide how much to prepare for that case. (Read Jeff Bezos’ two types of decisions).

It’s important to internalise how irreversible, fatal, or non-fatal a decision may be. Very few can’t be undone. — Dave Girouard

Build MVT — Fast & cost effective. Build the Minimum Technology that makes the product and their foreseeable iterations Viable. Prefer operational familiarity while choosing technology. Don’t fall for the latest buzzword (sure sign of inexperience).
Refactoring is part of success plan: Getting to refactor is a sign of success. Only components which are used and evolve fast; become complex overtime and need to be refactored. Be ready to re-factor or throw away and rebuild where justified.

The best code you can write now is the code you will discard in a couple of years time. – Martin Fowler

Think long term, act short term: It’s a fine line between under-engineering and MVT approach, that has to be tread properly. Don’t rush into execution without thinking completely, otherwise it will lead to more resource waste later. Thinking has to complete and deliberate choices must be there to cut scope. The rule of thumb, is discuss the ideal solution on board and then decide what to take out of scope to make it MVT.
Speed and Quality must go hand in hand: Never justify the bad quality of your work by using the speed of execution as excuse.

MVT is for scope reduction, not for quality reduction.

MVP/MVT is applicable for every iteration/release: People relate MVP to the First release of product only. In fact, it applies to every stage. MVP/MVT needs to be chosen from the remaining next tasks at every stage. At no stage, it is ok to waste time and resources.
Deep understanding, conviction and confidence is needed for MVT. Both MVP and MVT approach is about taking bold calls like — “Out of these tasks, only this much is enough to win this stage of game”. While defensive traditional approach is like — “we can’t win or sustain if we do not do most of the known tasks”.
Alignment across departments is must for MVT execution. MVT reduces time to market in 80% of cases, by focusing on the core of what is needed. As per 80-20 rule, only 20% will need re-factoring and re-architecture later. Due to mistrust and friction between departments, they keep looking for faults in others. This leads to engineering (and others) being defensive and therefore over prepare to avoid any mistakes. This is explained and solved in Solver Teams post. In ST approach, all parties are in hot sync and are aware of trade offs taken while executing. So there is strong understanding and support for such efforts.

Move Fast. Keep Shipping!!

* The term “Minimum Viable Technology – MVT” is coined by the author – Ajay Shrivastava

12/11/201615/11/2016

The specifics – How we grew 100% organically every quarter

We had earlier written about the fundamentals that helped us in growing over past one year but recently we looked back to dig further and list down few specifics that we believe helped our growth. These come from our own experience as a consumer company and might not be applicable to every startup but we hope that something applicable and actionable is derived from the points below.

What we did:

1) We operated below scale in a very patient manner (Do things that don’t scale — Paul Graham)

Early on, we saved contacts of all our top 300 active users in a company phone and spent a great deal of time in assisting them, reaching out to them. We called them all at least once a month, interacted over WhatsApp and staying tuned to their feedback helped us iterate our product at a faster pace. These users were also the ones whose feedback we gave primary weightage to. The idea was that it’s better to have few hundred very satisfied users than few thousand dissatisfied users.

This further helped us in a subjective product validation as we monitored NPS (Net Promoter Score) and gauged how disappointed they will be, if we took the product away from market.

2) Almost everyone in our team did customer support early on.

Over a period of time, many customers thought that we had a big team of customer support staff while the reality was that anyone would pick up the phone kept on the table in the early days. Reason for this was that, we wanted to listen to every piece of feedback ourselves and understand the issues users faced. The same set of issues and appropriate actions to be taken differed in many instances when viewed from different perspectives of development team, marketing team and product team.

The idea was that we need to have high capacity of attentiveness. We would respond to every tweet, call, email and resolve any issue within 10 minutes. This further reflected in our play store reviews where a vast number of them praise our customer support.

This non-scalable approach is an advantage of being a first mover in the market, the tacit knowledge acquired is invaluable and sets up time compression diseconomies (an MBA jargon for first mover economic advantage) that just can’t be overcome overnight by a clone.

3) We sold like a non-tech company!

Remember those users whom we had on our WhatsApp, we cross-sell and up-sell a lot of different use cases to them by just picking up the phone, so much so that they started recognising us by our voice over phone. We did a user specific profiling of their spend and the use cases they spent on and carried out over quarters weekly and monthly comparative analysis to predict growth trajectory and fine tune our throttle accordingly.

We were obviously not selling penny stocks but genuinely helping them out!These users further spread the word about product among their peers and we started mapping behaviour of incoming cohorts of users.

4) We iterated very fast for a focussed outcome

We have very short product release cycles to experiment and test our hypotheses and improve funnels conversion and KPIs. As a small startup, we realised that at any point of time, there are maximum of 2 metrics that we can focus on.

This ensured that we learnt and acquired knowledge of our social payments domain on a regular weekly basis and this growth is the kind that doesn’t reflect in vanity metrics like app downloads.

5) We maintained sanity when it came to data

We tracked but never over — analysed data. We largely relied on user observation and subjective feedback in early days and later ensured that the assumptions we test are based on decent sized cohorts which are statistically significant. For user observation and feedback, 10–15 users at a time is usually a good number to uncover majority of issues or problems a user would encounter.

6) We started with a clean slate with no prior bias.

We believe that there is nothing ‘standard’ about standards or best practices which is why we put out the disclaimer upfront that our learnings might not be relevant and applicable to all. For a unique product play and especially if you are not copying a product from the West, one requires patience and has to test everything about the product.

We iterated our product with constant user feedback and observation improving the conversions within the product and engagement.

We also got some validation for our approach towards very unique challenges we faced. One such example was partitioning our app in two parts — ‘Split n Settle — Post Transaction money settlement among friends’ and ‘Plan n Pay — Pre Transaction collection among friends’ and the approaches we took were also seen in products whose UX we admire like ClearTrip, Tinder and Google Play.

We have just begun and are learning something new everyday. It is this process of never ending learning from consumers while serving them, that excites and keeps us going on every day.

Guest Post by Ankit, MyPoolin

03/11/201604/11/2016

Is your product stuck with biased feedback?

Product Management be it for Internet world or otherwise is an interesting job. One gets exposed to multiple business functions be it marketing, sales, customer support or general management. The only result that is desired from Product folks is to ship a product that users will love and then it should have a network effect — i.e. other associated functions can be almost on auto-pilot.

Alas, getting to this single point result is easier said than done. Success for product can be attributed to multiple factors however having been into product space for quite some time, a critical reason of product failure can definitely be attributed to BIASED feedback.

Given below are few biased factors that a product should not fell upon but is not able to avoid it –

a. Internal Bias — A product team almost on a daily basis works on wire-frames, prototypes and on developing actual product screens etc, a product marketing team works on a daily basis on new acquisition and awareness strategies — landing pages, ad words etc. and a product sales team (if any) would work on refining sales pitches, making decks etc. However when it comes to getting feedback on the work done, it is mostly either the internal team or managers.The internal team members or managers are the first one that introduces bias in the product. The internal folks are so much breathing the product that after some time, fresh perspective is not visible at all.

b. Data bias — Yes, tracking user data on product usage is a gold mine however how one goes about interpreting the data can again lead to a biased solution. For instance, you identify that a feature is not being used at all, a biased conclusion will be to remove the feature and mostly that is what a product team generally do. However, a feature not being used can also be related to non-understanding of it by users during the transaction journey or perhaps not enough push by the marketing team? Can the same feature be presented in a different manner? This will or rather cannot be uncovered by data.

c. User Bias — Most of the products have one or more ways to solicit feedback from product users. However, what I have found is that a typical feedback process generally will not point to real pain points of a user. This happens because a user is not equipped to describe the pain point in a way that a product team can understand and thus sometimes what users say and what they actually want can have a huge difference

Based on my experience, the best inputs I have received for my product has always been from folks who are from similar functions but not in the same organization.

What has been your journey to ensure product doesn’t get stuck with biased feedback?

Guest post by Nishith Gupta, UXHacks

01/11/201601/11/2016

Internet of Hacks? Minimal prevention steps

Friday 21^stOct 2016 has been billed as the first large scale cybersecurity incident from the IoT world. The widely reported attacks involved inserting malware into devices to turn them into a network of controllable bots that was directed to attack websites. One of the principal targets was Dyn the DNS provider to Twitter, Reddit, GitHub, Paypal, Spotify, Heroku, SoundCloud, Crunchbase, Netflix, Amazon, and others. More than 10 million devices were alleged to be hacked and almost all (96%) of them were IoT devices, according to Level 3 Threat Research Labs.

These devices are typically headless (no screen) but are full-fledged (linux) computers . The IoT devices typically are more constrained with microcontrollers instead of CPU and real time micro OS like tinyOS, Contiki, mbed etc. However, there is no question that too will come. The source code of the Mirai malware has been open sourced fueling an arms race between attackers and defenders.

There are important public policy and regulatory aspects in the repeated vulnerability of the Internet but here we provide some advice on minimal steps we need to take to reduce basic vulnerability.

Network Operators (ISP, Cellular)

Network operators may end up being the spider at the centre of the web and play a central role in securing the IoT.

Cellular operators have traditionally not been very forthcoming on security and have long grappled with vulnerabilities in Signalling System 7 (SS7), which allows all operators to talk to each other. SS7 – the central-nervous system of the worldwide mobile network – connects our phones and allows us to move around while using them. More people use SS7 than the internet. This 1975 vintage system is full of vulnerabilities. Google “SS7 hacks” to see how WhatsApp or Telegram can be tapped. In IoT, we are dealing not just with information and money but life and death and the operators need to up their game quickly and by quantum jumps.

In the cat and mouse game being played out in cyberspace, the classical intrusion detection mechanisms are being bypassed. Attackers launch a few probes and if they fail, go away and attack some other device and come back to this device a bit later. Unless we correlate activity across large slices of time it becomes difficult to detect this behaviour. Attackers are simulating humans! The network operator can however detect sustained attempts by a bot across multiple sites. Operators should be much more proactive in shutting such bots down and blacklisting concerned ISPs. A proactive action to protect sensitive end-user installations can be a great value added service.

Smart Home User

1. Change default password in your home router. Ensure the trapdoor used by your service provider (ISP) and device manufacturer (Router maker) are locked down and not using defaults or easily guessed passwords. Since many routers (based on Linux variants) are already infected, you may even consider a factory reset or changing to a more secure version.

2. Review devices directly connected to Internet, i.e. those that have an IP address and are directly addressable. DLNA, uPnP are suspect. Disconnect where possible. Check with your supplier if an on-premise Hub can be a gateway and hide all devices from the Internet. This is the recommended architecture. See recommendations for device manufacturers below.

3. Arrange to shut down all incoming internet connections. At the minimum review and remove telnet, ssh etc. May need technical configuration at your router.

SmartFactory and SmartBuilding

4. Review recommendations 1-3 for SmartHome. Do a root and branch review of all routers. Upgrade and use trusted computing and hardware root of trust in securing WiFi and internet access points.

5. Review logging capability of the IoT network. IoT devices use non-Internet protocols like Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4-based ZigBee, Wireless HART, ISA 100.11a etc. For an in-depth look at IoT protocols, go here. Security information and event management (SIEM) tools are a bit rudimentary for these IoT networks. Consider open-source tools like Foren6 as a stop gap and work with your vendors to encourage development of proper tools. This is a good space for new products. (Entrepreneurs, behind every crisis is an opportunity!)

6. Segment the IoT network from the general internet connected one. Place the segmented IoT part under more aggressive and conservative controls.

7. Ask your IoT providers about security. An architecture which hides IoT devices behind a segmented network and funnels all incoming connections through a managed choke-point is a minimal starting point. It is very difficult and probably impossible to secure all IoT devices. More effort should go to managing the network and controls need to extend beyond firewall rules to commands and API calls. Encrypted outbound traffic needs extra care.

Device Manufacturers

8. Consider an architecture which provides security. See https://t.co/mLQPh81a1l for an intro to IoT Stack

9. Most important is to hide IoT devices from the internet behind a IoT gateway. Many start-ups especially for the Smarthome build or roll out custom gateways. If you are connecting IoT device through BLE to smartphones or newer Routers, review and block incoming Internet connection.

10. Security has not been a major consumer concern. Our research indicates fatigue is setting in. How to configure and how to trust what works, when even Yahoo, LinkedIn and JP Morgan etc are hacked? For IoT, an incident movement is starting. See IamtheCavalry.org. Opportunity for brand positioning and innovation? How do you sell a car on safety? Some random ideas:

Consider a sticker on each device which provides auto-configuration credentials in a QR code for the segmented (Home) network. User scans using a smartphone and it configures the App or home router, IoT gateway. Consider a configuration-less PKI like DeviceAuthority.

Consider super-user activity (like switching over-the-air upgrade off), which changes critical functioning of device and builds defence like 4 eyes (two operators have to approve) or 2 factor authentication ( OTP).

Consider logging and forensics at the gateway.

11 Security in Design to Deployment: Consider what level of concern you need to address for your brand and engage skilled consultants to audit and review the threats and controls and the architecture you have adopted. Avoid temptation to roll your own crypto algorithms or update and patch delivery method. These are complex and non trivial. Open source middleware and IoT platforms are coming up (Kaa project, Iotivity , platfromio etc) and explore them. It may even be worthwhile to use a commercial platform.

Guest post by Arvind Tiwary & Vishwas Lakhundi.

Arvind Tiwary is chair TiE IoT Forum and member Taskforce on IoT security set up by CISO platform and IoT Forum.

Vishwas Lakkundi is an IoT Specialist & Consultant and a member of Taskforce on IoT security set up by CISO platform and IoT Forum.

Views expressed here are personal.

27/10/201627/10/2016

iSPIRT & the India Stack pilot – commercialization of techno-creative innovations

iSPIRT invited select companies to leverage the IndiaStack API’s and collaboratively construct a pilot program, as a demonstrable proof of concept.

Broadly, the pilots were established to transfer the invented technologies and expertise to the market. In addition to creating sufficient and supportive infrastructure for technology transfer; to embolden entrepreneurs and businesses create profits based on intellectual property generated from these innovations, our pilot learnings were needed to help effectively address government, regulators and public institutions to seek their support for policy recommendations made by iSPIRT.

More specifically, the belief at iSPIRT was that for successful new technology venture, entrepreneurs and businesses should possess a combination of learning experiences, knowledge, self-confidence and skills to face challenges in various stages of commercialization process.

All participants to the pilot were carefully selected by examining their current business models, abilities to contribute to all aspects of IndiaStack, coexistence in a non-competing frame, investing in own resources (costs, effort, time) and above all for demonstrating their PASSION for technology and BELIEF that they will transform INDIA’s landscape for its people and businesses.

This pilot would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. iSPIRT is highly indebted to Khosla Labs for providing AUA, KUA services for free. eMudhra for being our eSign service provider, and for generously waiving fees while working to onboard all the partners in a compressed timeframe for the pilot. All our partners, namely Capital Float, Eko, Axis Bank, and Suvidhaa for enthusiastically supporting us, while setting aside their competitive instincts to collaborate and sharing learnings. And also to each of the iSPIRT volunteers for their guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the pilot & also for their support in commission to completion of the pilot in less than 90 days!

India Stack pilot – commercialization of techno-creative innovations from ProductNation.in

iSPIRT believes that by sharing the pilot learnings through the above publication, we will address aspects of entrepreneurship competencies and create the right entrepreneurial environment to produce innovations that are both technologically feasible and commercially viable.

iSPIRT would particularly like to extend its sincere thanks to CATALYST and Dalberg for the study and its dissemination.

Guest Post by Jaishankar AL, Tally Solutions

25/10/201624/10/2016

Talking Software Products in Bangalore

Bangalore was the next stop for the iSPIRT product round-table around the theme of “Getting Traction for Software Products”. The goal of this round-table, hosted by Niraj Rout (Hiver/Grexit), Natwar Maheshwari (Around.io) Avinash Raghava and me, was to get peer feedback from a group of startups at a similar stage.

In this format, around ten participants meet and each one gets around twenty minutes to showcase their product and share their challenges. Everyone then gives feedback based on their experience. We met at the Hiver office at HSR Layout.

We have observed that most Indian product startups are not very comfortable with the self-service model, where the goal is to reduce frictionto product adoption and hence drive traction. With this format we get to talk about topics like automated sign-ups, on-boarding, customer success, content marketing, positioning and quality and nudge the participants towards this model. Most other round-tables talk about how sales can drive growth. Here, we focus on how products drive growth.

We have earlier done this format at Pune, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai before coming to Bangalore. Being an outsider, it was fascinating to see how the city of Bangalore was rapidly expanding. This magnet for migration has become a mess of concrete blocks, narrow lanes, traffic jams and angry cab drivers. But this is also where the startup ecosystem is thriving. The number of technology startups is astounding and there are many strong companies being built. At the round-table, we had a bunch of really amazing and diverse product companies.

The amount of startup literature available is almost unlimited, and every third person is self-qualified to dispense gyaan. At the round-table, we avoidgyaan by discussing specific problems. Some of the problems we discussed were:

Entering new markets (like the United States or Europe)
Content marketing (how to get blogs to write for you)
Increasing growth (how do we go beyond the early adopters)
Launching new products (or pivoting)
Moving towards SAAS (from an on-premise model)
Competition (getting even with YC funded, slickly branded competitors)

At the end each one of us went back with at least one or two things we could work on.

What really stood out about this group was that this was a bunch of seasoned entrepreneurs. Almost everyone had real products. Their feet were firmly on the ground and were motivated to scale their companies to the next level.

I flew in to Bangalore a couple of days before the round-table to meet ERPNext customers and community members. It was both inspiring and humbling to meet users and developers who were working on a product we built. After all these years, I could see that the product had built a strong reputation and users were expecting a lot from us. Almost every conversation was around open source. Why? How? Are you crazy? I am certain that almost everyone who was uncertain about it before we met, had become an evangelist by the time our meeting was over.

On the evening before the roundtable, Niraj, Avinash, Natwar and I met at the Napoli Bistro at HSR Layout for dinner. Over pizza and soda, we chatted about the state of software products in India. While it was really nice to see product companies being able to survive and begin to prosper in India, there was almost no one taking moonshots, or outrageous risks, like Elon Musk. Most of the conversations we had were on the short term (survival) and medium term (growth).

On my way back to Mumbai, I reflected on what we were doing at ERPNext with open source and building communities. We believe that we are taking big risks, by breaking all the rules of how software products are built in India. In the context of the overall community it is important someone does that. With all the conversations I had over the past three days, I was convinced that we were on to something and we should take even bigger risks.

Whether we fail or succeed, is another matter. We need more moonshots.

24/10/201624/10/2016

Product Owner and/or Product Manager – Don’t Debate the Wrong Issue

Recently I was called into a mid-size software organization – and got right in the middle of a heated debate that had obviously been going on for some time. Development wanted to move to a Scrum-like agile model, and put pressure on the established Software Product Management (SPM) department to change their name to Product Owner which SPM refused vehemently. Development argued that the agile terms had to be used as symbols for the cultural change to a faster organization that the company executives were aiming at with the move to agile.

Everybody was appalled when I told them that they were discussing the wrong issue. Yes – terms can have psychological impact. But to make the organization really faster first priority has to be on processes, methodologies and a corresponding role model. Once these are sufficiently improved in line with the organizations‘ objectives, tasks and capabilities, you can agree on new names if you want to. Development argued that they did not want to waste time with these discussions since Scrum already defined processes and roles. Now I disagreed.

Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide is just a framework that requires significant customization for any real world implementation. In fact, the majority of organizations do not even implement all the must-have elements of the framework, but then still claim to do Scrum. That is in particular true for the Scrum roles as is nicely documented in the State-of-Scrum Report of the Scrum Alliance (see http://bit.ly/1C391MK, pp. 22-23). I would not be surprised if this picture stayed quite the same in the report’s update to be published later this year.

The product owner role is defined as a member of the Scrum Team that feeds the team continuously with work in the form of user stories based on the prioritized requirements in the backlog. The product owner is the interface to the outside world, the rest of the team is shielded so that they can focus on their development work with optimal productivity. Implemented like this, product owner is a rather operational full-time role whose tasks overlap with a software product manager’s in the areas of requirements engineering and release planning.

This overlap needs to be sorted out in terms of process and role definitions. Some Scrum consultants claim that the most productive solution is one person who assumes both the product owner and product manager roles and all tasks attached to them – which they call – guess what? – product owner. Well – unfortunately wishful thinking for most organizations! This may work in some environments with one Scrum Team, but it can definitely not scale up. And the poor person who gets this combined product owner/product manager role will always be pushed by the team to prioritize her/his operational tasks. Over time the more strategic tasks are neglected – to the disadvantage of the product and the organization. Alternatively, operational tasks can be delegated to other Scrum Team members, but that boils down to an implicit split of the two roles again.

Don’t get me wrong! I see a lot of value in agile in a lot of situations, but it needs to be customized in the right way. In the end, my customer decided to have two roles – product owner and product manager – strongly linked for optimal communication, but with clearly defined different tasks and responsibilities. And it works – faster.

I will be speaking on this topic at ISPMA webinar on 4th November at 2:30 PM IST. You may register here to attend the webinar. I would request you to ask any questions you have on the subject. I would be happy to answer.

Guest Post by Hans-Bernd, Chairman at ISPMA.
Full disclosure: I am CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner), ISPMA Certified Software Product Manager, and Board Member of ISPMA (www.ispma.org).

For more details regarding Upcoming Webinar on PM Vs PO, click here.

19/10/201619/10/2016

Demystifying Growth Hacking

Too much has been already written about ‘Growth Hacking’. Having been into product space for quite some time, I believe growth hacking is probably the most confused jargon being used in the business world (mainly product businesses).

Hence, thought of writing down my perspective on growth hacking by clearing out few notions around it –

For growth hacking, one should know coding?

I will say it depends on the hack. Some hacks will need a combination of more than one skills but sometimes a hack can be solely executed by a single function.

There is definitely use of technology as an enabler. Technology in growth hacking case generally need not correspond to hardcore coding but to a set of tools that helps you execute the hack quickly.

For example, trying different subject line for e-mails is a growth hack focused solely on content. What you need for it — probably a creative mind and an e-mail marketing and A/B testing tool (the tech part) but definitely not coding.

However if e-mail subject line has to be optimized based on results of earlier e-mail campaigns, then data skills is also needed. From data you should be able to make inferences and thus optimize the current campaign.

So it all depends on the use case.

Copying of popular growth hacks will also give you the similar results –

I think once a hack is in public domain and is widely accepted, then it is no more a growth hack.

For example, if you are a SaaS provider, you would have known of that putting one price plan as ‘Most Popular’ have resulted in more sign ups for few products.

Should you implement it? Yes.

Will it deliver the same growth? Probably no when compared to products who tried when this hack was still in infancy, as now this hack is more of a hygiene.

However if you can even innovate a bit be it at UI, Content or something else that does the trick for you, congratulations! you have created a hack for yourself. And you need not split it out until you see the results getting flattened out.

Growth Hacking is only about new user acquisition –

I believe, for any product there are four main metrics that is needed to be improved on a constant basis — User Awareness, User Acquisition, User Engagement and User Retention.

So any activity that can be used to improve any of the four metrics in the least cost or no cost (the ideal situation) can be qualified as a growth hack.

Would be glad to help in case someone needs more information.

P.S: check out this http://conversionxl.com/growth-hacking/ for more detailed view points which had emerged around growth hacking starting 2010 and this clearly tells why there is so much confusion around growth hacking!

Guest Post by Nishith Gupta

18/10/201612/03/2017

Takeaways from the Second ProductNation Boot Camp #PNCamp #Pune

iSPIRT put together its second Product Nation boot camp for product people, by product people on 8^th October 2016 at Persistent Systems’ Office in Pune. It was a day-long coming together of doers: ones who have been there, done that; and ones in the journey of getting there. The format was simple:

Successful product entrepreneurs shared details of their journey, interesting hacks and their learning

Teardown session of early stage product startups, who are still looking for product-market fit.

Orchestrated by hand-picked facilitators, there were focused, interactive, deep conversations within small, curated groups.

I have summarized key learning from the bootcamp below:

Confirmation Bias

One of the things that stood in the teardown sessions is that more often than not, founders tend to be bogged down with confirmation bias. Despite best intentions, many entrepreneurs look to confirm hypotheses, rather than test them. This is called confirmation bias and may lead to false positives.

Confirmation bias is defined as the tendency to search for and interpret information in a way that confirms one’s own existing preconceptions, beliefs and opinions. Entrepreneurs, generally known to be highly driven people, are intensely focused on their goal and therefore may be extra vulnerable to the destructive effect of confirmation bias

For an entrepreneur, the danger here is obvious: without a clear understanding of the things that might cause your business to fail, it’s impossible to overcome them.

Focus on specifics and go into depth

Another aspect evident from the discussion was that we are often trying to do too many things, and this could be with respect to also adding too many features.

Instead, you want to be the best at one thing your customers want or need. Focus on how that one thing you do best can deliver value to your customers. Become irreplaceable to your customers

To implement even one good idea takes a mountain of work–strategic planning, product development, marketing pushes, financing, administration, human resources, and so much more. Taking one idea to profits is hard. To be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to realize the devil is in the details. Don’t fall into the trap of trying–like so many entrepreneurs–to do too much.

Another benefit of focus for startups is that it enables better marketing. The only way to get mindshare is to have a simple story. It’s hard to be succinct in describing several products. By having a clear and singular focus you can more easily craft a simple story that resonates with customers. This in turn makes it easier to generate PR. And most importantly of all, an easy to describe product and differentiation allows consumers to more easily tell your story and help you create viral growth.

Identify Customer Persona

User Personas are fictional descriptions of a few different profiles of your typical users, based on research and conversations with prospective buyers. They help you understand your users better and are important tools when tailoring the message of your brand. Identifying customer persona helps early can help you in several ways:

Identify your target market – Building a User Persona helps a startup clearly identify and understand its target market

Shape your product or service offering – With this goldmine of information, a startup is uniquely positioned to shape its product or service offering to better cater to the needs of its target buyers. This can, for example, also help you decide the theme for your product landing page, color combination, UX intricacies etc.

Lead generation – A marketing strategy that is based on well researched user personas, and defined customer decision journeys will result in higher lead generation

Content creation –Once you’ve understood the motivations, goals, challenges and habits of your users and prospective users, you can build content that is designed to address these goals. Your content will now be much more effective and will convert at a higher rate.

Content Marketing Strategies for Early Stage Startups by Ankit Oberoi, AdPushUp at PNcamp from ProductNation.in

How are you divergent?

Suresh from Kissflow showed an interesting slide on how KissFlow was divergent against its contemporaries. Founders need to have clarity on the key criteria their target persona will evaluate before choosing their product. It could be features, price, ease of use etc, and compare it with other players in the market.

Think about this: Why do customers pay for your product or service? What makes it unique and better than that of your competitors?

Your differentiation will stem from the insights you gathered about the problem or the customer which you uniquely believe no one else has.

Rinse and repeat

As an entrepreneur, you need to clearly differentiate between fact and hypothesis. You will make several hypothesis, but you need to test them before making accepting them as a fact.

The most important element of creating a hypothesis is that it must be “falsifiable.” That means your hypothesis can be rejected after an initial experiment of the hypothesis.

Second, all hypotheses should be quantifiable. In other words, you must be able to predict, account, and analyze your results. A good hypothesis includes both a question and good methodology to uncover the results. After determining the question and developing your methodology, you should then run a test to analyze the information obtained.

You will be creating hypothesis related to several aspects in your startup journey, viz. product features, customer needs, website, pricing etc.

Three important rules to keep in mind:

Do not be afraid to test your hypothesis

Be honest with yourself

Learn from your mistakes.

In the words of Matt Damon in The Martian, “At some point, everything’s gonna go south on you and you’re going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next one, and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home.”

Keep It Simple

And finally an important rule that founders need to imbibe by – Keep It Simple. This applies to your product, it applies to your website, it applies to user onboarding and perhaps almost everything. The single biggest thing that will attract customers to try you, atleast initially is trust. Trust that you can deliver and trust that what you say is true. Simplicity helps you build this trust. Shy away from unnecessary hype or claims on your website and don’t make it until you make it.

All in all, PNcamp is a MUST attend camp for any early stage product startup. It is a unique opportunity to catch the brains of experts and fellow participants through product feedbacks and interactions. What particularly stands out within the iSpirt community and in this even is the candidness of founders and their willingness to share details about their journey.

Guest Post by Rajat Harlalka, Bellurbis Technologies