You built it, it works, but you’re far from monetization or even consistent users. So, how do you proceed? Below is a list of questions to ask yourself.
- Did you solve the problem for which you originally targeted?
- Is the original problem that you intended to solve still important?
- Oftentimes, you may need to decompose the problem in greater detail: What aspects of the problem are users most concerned?
- The greater problem depth will lend to 2-3 detailed solution methodologies: How (by what criteria) should we best solve it?
- Solution methodologies and associated tools should be explored (for their utility and practicality) before committing to them: How do we manually perform the steps of this method? If you can solve it manually, then it may be a good candidate for automation.
- Tests can be created from these manual steps which will then be used to prove the automated solution works as intended: Do our result follow from the intended theory?
- Selling your product could be difficult because stakeholder scope must be appropriate. There should be a good Product Owner who can represent the needs of all the intended users. The Product Owner should validate the problem is decomposed, correctly. Executives / investors funding the product will want to see proof the solution solves the problem
- Explain the solution with diagrams / visuals that describe the methodology(ies) in order to build confidence.
To prove the solution, the application results should match expected output for manually-derived test cases
Recommendations for moving forward:
- step away from the current product
- work through the steps explained, above
- determine if future functionality should be integrated with the current application (if so, then how)
- create a strong plan with detailed tasks to implement
Don’t invest or commit too much - you may have to go through this process again!