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- What are the 3Ps for a Successful Startup?
What are the 3Ps for a Successful Startup?
Updated on 25 November, 2022
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• 3 min read
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The definition of ‘ideal’ often differs from situation to situation. What is ideal for a public company may not work for a start-up. And so is the case with the product lifecycle. The linear model that is so looked upon and adopted by entrepreneurs also happens to be the cause of failure for many start-ups.
What is a Linear Product Lifecycle?
Simple and smooth, right? But, sadly this model seldom works.
Why?
Because
- It’s not a cycle
A neat and tidy set of sequential steps never works for a start-up. It’s the network of interconnected disciplines working together to achieve the goals that help in making the product a success. - Design is just an afterthought
Most start-ups consider design as just the look and feel of the product. But in reality, the design is how the users see and experience the product. - It has no scope for improvement
With the markets changing by the minute, one cannot develop a product based on a research that conducted three months ago. Which means that to stay up-to-date, the product development process has to be dynamic.
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If this is not ideal, then what?
To understand this, let’s take a step back and understand what the 3Ps are and what role do they play in a start-up.
Product Management
It’s the first stage where the idea for the start-up is born, a problem is defined, requirements to build the product are listed, the solution is validated and a plan for marketing the product is chalked out. Here, the focus is to understand the market and find where the idea/solution fits in the grand scheme of things.
Product Design
The second and the most crucial stage where the idea is analysed from a customer’s perspective, the solution is tested and a prototype (use case scenario or wireframe) is created for the product that reflects the core experience of the product from a customer’s viewpoint. In this stage, the objective is to create a sustainable product design that helps in understanding the customers’ needs and desires to build a great product and also facilitates subsequent versions, if the pilot run is successful.
Product Development
The final stage were based on the product design, the solution is built using the technology defined in the product management phase. Here, the product is also tested for bugs and fixes in the final phase of its development to retrofit/upgrade the features which were defined in the first two stages. In this phase, the focus is on actual user experience encountered by the prospective end-users.
3Ps for a successful start-up
When these 3Ps work in tandem with each other, a product lifecycle ‘ideal’ for a start-up is born. In this lifecycle, product management makes way for a sound product design while laying down the foundation for a great product development process. Product design validates the idea of the start-up by giving a face to the flowchart drawn in the project management phase and being a blueprint for product development. Project development both builds the solution from the management phase and validates the design. Hence, when the product lifecycle is interconnected –the 3Ps make a great recipe for a successful start-up.
Hence, when the product lifecycle is interconnected –the 3Ps make a great recipe for a successful start-up.
If you like to have one-to-one with industry experts, networking with hundreds of entrepreneurs, and bag a seed funding to start your idea, check Leadership & Management program
If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
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What skills do venture capitalists look for in early-stage entrepreneurs?
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1. Does the market need my product? also known as Identifying Need-Gap
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2. Where do I see my product going in the next 10 years?
Longevity is something you need to ascertain before you get your idea on the road. If you’re looking to create a product that will only satisfy a short-term need, you may find yourself hitting a wall very soon. A seasonal need, however, can be a whole different ball-game. You could either adapt your product to serve a long-term need or form the right judgment that will help you plan whether or not your product has what it takes to survive.
3. Can this model generate revenue?
The most important part of your journey & probably one of the biggest reasons why you’re there in the first place. Not every model, however, is a great revenue generator. This is something you need to calculate very carefully before you launch your product.
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4. Who is my competition & where do I stand?
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5. How do I craft my idea into what the customer needs?
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If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
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Entrepreneurship is counterintuitive. Some of the most celebrated business school learnings may not hold water when it comes to starting up. I have tried to share some of my learnings which I have gained through experience which I feel might be of value to many aspiring entrepreneurs out there.
You never start up to get funded!
I think in today’s day and age, funding is over-rated. Most of the entrepreneurs start with asking the question – ‘will I get funded?’ and post a round of funding, they feel that they have achieved their goal. But little do they realise that this is just a means to an end. I think celebrating funding is like congratulating an athlete for buying new running shoes before the race has started. An entrepreneur generally starts their journey to solve a pain point that they are really passionate about eradicating. So, they must continue to focus on their primary objective and let funding simply nudge them further on their journey ahead.
Know your customer well
If you have noticed, I have written ‘customer’ and not ‘customers’. This is very crucial when you are starting up to have the ‘one customer’ in your mind and know them really well. By really well, I mean – you should know their name, where they live or work, what they do every day etc. Live and breathe their life.
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Your product/solution may solve the pain point of various customer segments. But it is important for you to have the razor sharp focus on one customer. This has multiple benefits – from designing your product really well to chalking out an impeccable marketing campaign to communicate to your very customer. In the initial stages of a start-up, there is always this urge to expand the definition of your customer segment so that you can reach out to a much larger customer base. But it requires a lot of discipline to stay focused. When we designed the program to target working professionals, we got a lot of interest from colleges and corporates to offer the same program to students and employees. But we stuck to catering to the working professionals – with a single agenda to wow them.
Go all out to wow your first set of customers
When you are starting up, you are low on resources with a limited marketing budget. Your best source of getting a good word out for your venture and the product is your ‘satisfied customers’. Therefore in early days, it is important for entrepreneurs to focus on ensuring that your customers are happy using your product and are willing to recommend the same to their peers. In the process of doing this, you will end up doing things that may be difficult to scale up. However, your focus should be on getting and giving the best experience to your consumer. Try to get continuous feedback from those who have tried and used your products and keep improvising accordingly.
At the end of the day, a start-up is a continuous learning process. These are just a few lessons out of the countless ones I come across on a daily basis. So if you are an aspiring entrepreneur, all I would say is don’t run after funding, let it run after you; believe in your product and listen to your customers even when they are just whispering and everything else will fall into place.
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How to Accelerate Your Startup with One Customer
Try this, you will love it.
If you are an entrepreneur or an aspiring one at that, this statement can be a dream come true when your customer recommends your product to someone who is yet to discover it in this manner. But mind you, this domino effect always starts with one customer. That particular one who made you realise that there is a problem and your product/service can solve it. The one who you intended to cater to, right from day one. Hold on to that customer, hypothetically or otherwise and they will lead you to your holy grail eventually. And if you are chasing a group of customers, now could be a good time to pick one of them, understand them and see where it leads you.
This might sound ironic but we often tend to visualize our target group in terms of age, occupation, location and many more inhuman parameters, when what matters the most is to know how they would feel, think and react to your product/service when it is out and about. The best way to do this is to choose only one customer and get to know them thoroughly.
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You don’t have to know them personally but if you do, nothing like it. Apart from the usual details like name, occupation and location, figure out their likes and dislikes. Find out the little nuances that define who they are. While you are at it, keep your eyes open to find out where does your product/service fit into their life seamlessly and what can you do to get it there. Resist the temptation to stretch your target group till you have achieved your first few milestones.
Being a leader, your entire focus will usually be on building your company and taking it to the next level. But in the process, don’t lose sight of your ideal customer. Take them to the next level too. Befriend them, talk to them like you would talk to your best buddies and get to know them up, close and personally. They will have more to say about you, not just about your products but also about who you are as a start-up or an entrepreneur. This will help you to broaden your horizon even more efficiently.
Keep your ears open to what your customers are saying even when they say nothing at all. No, you don’t need any telepathic skills to do this. While the surveys and lead generation campaigns you conduct will get your customer to speak to you directly, there are many things they might say about your product/service on other portals. Lap it up instantly and see how you can improvise. This does not mean you need to extend your customer segment. It just means that you hear them even when they are not talking to you and give them a product/service they only wished for.
No matter how far you go with your start-up, make it a habit to come back to your ideal customer every now and then. They will help you put things in perspective and stay focussed on your primary objective that had turned you into a leader.
If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
Read More08 Jan'16
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Lessons in Marketing for Startups
Early-stage challenges
When you are starting up, you are low on resources. Getting your first set of customers becomes very crucial. A lot of us, when we take the entrepreneurial plunge, have a fair idea of how the product will look and evolve – and this is something that lies in our hands. But reaching out to your customers is a complete unknown. You always ask yourself these questions – Will customers try my product? How much do I need to spend on getting customers?
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Getting your first 100 customers is always one of the toughest, but the most fun part of the entrepreneurial journey.
We recently launched our online program – Leadership & Management – for leaders. We knew that there is a need for the program in the market, but were unsure if:
We will get customers to take up an online program
We will get customers to actually pay for an online program
As a new venture, we were facing two uphill battles – one of convincing our customers to adopt online education and secondly, to pay for it. Therefore, it became important for us to be smart about our marketing. We tried different techniques- some worked and some didn’t.
As an early-stage digital startup, it is very easy to start focusing on getting customers from across India for your product. Yes, it allows you to aim for a larger target group, but you end up spending a huge amount without commensurate conversions. It is important to know your ‘one customer’ and plan to target them accordingly. In the case of UpGrad, we went ahead with focusing on three Tier 1 cities for our digital marketing initiative with a small marketing budget.
We got a very strong response to our marketing campaign. We deployed a small number of sites (Yourstory, NextBigWhat, etc.) that folks interested in entrepreneurship frequent. With that limited marketing budget, we were able to reach out to our narrow target segment multiple times. It is important for an early-stage startup to know the right marketing channel and focus on it rather than going after multiple channels.
For a lot of entrepreneurs, digital marketing is always the first thing that comes to mind. However, for the first 100 customers, it is important to leverage offline marketing significantly. When we were launching Startup with UpGrad, we participated in a number of events across our selected three cities. The reception that we got in these offline events helped us create a strong positioning for the brand UpGrad in terms of credibility. In these events, we got a chance to talk to potential customers that helped shape our product and fine-tune our positioning. In the early stage, as a founder, it is important to go out and meet potential customers and get first-hand feedback on their expectations, and offline events are great avenues for that.
When we were conceptualizing Startup with UpGrad, we wanted to create a strong positioning for our program. The idea came up in one of our weekly meetings, when a team member asked, “Why don’t we interview India’s leading entrepreneurs and get them to share their experiences for our program participants?” Initially, the idea was laughed away, but we all realised that it did sound like an interesting proposition.
We decided we will go ahead with this approach and reached out to 30-plus first-generation tech-entrepreneurs — from Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal to Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip, Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola and VSS Mani of JustDial. Most of them responded enthusiastically and we interviewed them for their insights. These interviews and experiences that we offered as a part of the program helped us create a strong positioning for the brand — and that became a strong marketing message for the program. So when you are starting up, any crazy idea could lead you to a successful launch and thus do not shy away from thinking bold.
If you want to learn more about marketing and entrepreneurship, Liverpool Business School & upGrad offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) Liverpool Business School which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.
Read Moreby Mayank Kumar
26 Jan'16