How To Successfully Start A Software Project. Project Kickoff Best Practices.
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You want to build an app. Great! But you need to be aware that the idea is not the end, it’s just a beginning of the much longer process of making your dreams come true. Let’s get started with a simple guide to successfully start a new project in the tech world.
If you’re not a newbie in the digital world, you probably already know how complicated things might be. However, if you are a business-oriented person, then talking with software developers and IT specialist can be a pain in the neck — trust me! It’s not the rule but really often entrepreneurs and tech people think and look into the problems differently. The same goes for its solving.
The problems are usually coming out when both sides are involved in creating software products but they are not trying to understand each other. It doesn’t mean that an entrepreneur needs to start studying computer science but still shouldn’t be the person who suggests technical solutions for people that specialize in software product development and understand the meaning of some ‘nerdy’ sentences. So, when you already familiarized with basic tech dictionary, how to start such a project in a nutshell?
- Start presenting your idea and business goal to the development team by using simple, concrete words. Think about your target group.
(Pro tip: Please be focused on the nearest future, not something that you want to achieve in 10 years from now — the market is constantly changing, as well as technologies) - Listen to the team — it’s not like everyone wants to rip you off! Developers are working on applications that should be profitable for you in the future and it’s the main goal of their work.
(Pro tip: Be prepared for other suggestions, proposed changes in the initial idea and market analysis) - Think about the proposed tech solutions. Give yourself time to revisit the market and your needs once again.
(Pro tip: Sometimes a half glass of water should be enough. Instead of having a full glass just at the beginning, you can have two bottles in the long run. Think about that!) - Start a software project right by defining the most valuable features of the application and user flow.
(Pro tip: Focus on what makes your application different from existing solutions. Founders have seen thousands of login pages and email templates. Focus on what makes your application truly unique. Familiarize also with MVP concept — Minimum Viable Product — take a look at really successful startups such as Airbnb, Twitter, Dropbox. With a basic application or prototype you can reach out to investors and get funding for further phases of product development.)
Thanks to this approach, we already have:
- List of application features based on your requirements
- The scope of developers work and key deliverables
- First wireframes or mockups of the application
- Initial roadmap with an estimated budget
What we also need to establish before we start to work on your product, is:
- Development team members
- Process and methodology
- List of needed tools
Project kickoff might be a great experience when we want to discuss the nearest development deliverables and make sure that the development team understands the business need as well as the user journey. The result of such a kickoff meeting might be providing the first wireframes and/or mockups of the application in case it hasn’t been done before. Having that determined is crucial for the development team to be able to provide an initial estimate of implementation time and ballpark project cost.
As a business owner, we expect you to be the Product guru, so you’re able to answer questions that should be considered from the business perspective and decide what would be the most optimal solution based on the team’s suggestions. Daily cooperation between two parties should be a default procedure, so the team can deliver tailor-made products.
Sounds good? We hope so! There are also other topics to discuss such as an agreement with the development company, project roadmap, and budget needed for seeing the idea live. In this simple guide, we focused mostly on communication flow between the business and tech world, although we know how important those factors are. In the end, it’s all about the people.
