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    Market Requirements 

    Make sure there's a market for your next big idea.

    All too often, excited entrepreneurs conceive of wonderful products. They have a hunch that there must be someone out there who will want them. It's important, though, to understand what the market actually needs when developing a product. Before you invest time into a new product or service offering, make sure people will be likely to buy what you have to sell.

    Research, Planning and Documentation: the Preliminary Market Requirements Document

    A Market Requirements Document (or MRD) is a great way to make sure you've covered the basics of understanding the people and companies you want to reach. 

    Causeit will partner with you to will develop a preliminary Market Requirements Document (MRD) for each product our customers. An MRD is a document setting the stage for development. It describes, at a high level, the new product or service to be offered, who might buy it, why they’ll buy it over its competition, and how they’ll buy it. It typically includes: 

    • Market Sizing - A preliminary estimate of how many potential customers exist for the product and, when applicable, the amount of money available in that market. 
    • Customer Needs and Development Basics - A definition of the major capabilities customers will want from the product. If we proceed, these will be spelled out in actionable detail in the Product Requirements Document (PRD) during Phase III. To proceed with feasibility, the client will need to provide a very rough estimate of level of effort. 
    • Sales & Distribution Channels - A high level determination regarding whether the major sales are most likely to come from direct channels (i.e. your own sales force), indirect channels (i.e. third-party advertising) or partners. 
    • Pricing Model Discussion - A discussion of pricing model covering who the buyer is (direct consumer, advertising supported, etc.) and a magnitude estimate of what they would be willing to pay ($1 vs. $10 vs. $100 vs. $1,000).
    • Business Process Preliminary Analysis - An exploration of the major infrastructure elements (informed by the distribution channels and customer needs) needed for the product to work and be successful. This includes sales, billing, and customer support, if needed, as well as preliminary discussions of scalability.
    • SWOT - A high-level analysis of the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the product, market and company.
    • Trends - A basic analysis of the major trends facing the technology, customers and industry for your product. 
    • Preliminary Risk Analysis - Identify major risks and preliminary ways to mitigate them when possible and when the risk is realistic enough.  

    Should we do it? The Feasibility Decision 

    We help you determine if the product is worth pursuing in more detail, given the potential revenue, capabilities required  and risks involved. This is a ‘back of the envelope’ calculation using rough estimates of potential revenue vs. level of effort and risk assessment. By using a ‘gut check’ at this stage, we can identify clearly unfeasible projects before major investment and articulate missing information which would be useful in making a decision. In addition, from this stage, we can help you develop the major milestones needed to complete the product. 

    During this meeting, we also determine if any major information, such as direct or indirect market research, is needed in order to make the go/no go decision and help you come up with a strategy for gathering it. Often, we can help you gather this information if you choose to expand the scope of this phase.

    Go ahead: Full Market Requirements and Product Requirements Documents

    After initial feasibility testing in the previous phases, we work with you to further develop a detailed product specification and strategy. At this stage we start detailed capability requirements, including use cases and interface requirements, which are contained in a Product Requirements Document (PRD). This phase involves increased detail regarding specifics for capability, sales, marketing and infrastructure. If the feasibility decision was contingent on additional knowledge, we also help you determine the market research or other means to answer these questions. During or by the end of this, a beta product or initial full release may be debuted.

    Typical elements of this phase include:

    • Product Requirements Document
    • Marketing plan
    • Sales plan
    • Launch plan
    • Creation or adjustment of business plan
    • Test plans - possibly including Beta tests
    • Business Process Documents

    Cohesive Implementation

    Once a product has been selected, we adjust other elements of the business as needed to support its success. This may include creating a new brand, extending an existing brand, expanding or modifying infrastructure and training, or otherwise supporting the product’s effective launch.

     

    Thanks to Mycroft Evans of Mycroft Evans Consulting for contributions to this page. Mycroft is a valued partner in our productizing process, and you can find out more about the work of Mycroft Evans Consulting on our Team page.