Product Validation Help
Hello, I have been playing around with a product idea for awhile now. Product validation is brand new to me. I've always envisioned web development projects having a client dashboard that stakeholders can observe the progress of their project. This would include detailed analytics, approving features, signing contracts, and more. A single place the client can do everything with their project. Of course on the back end we would need a good amount of collaboration tools for the dev team to use.
I've been told that the project management market is a hard one to break into. I am willing to drop this product idea and move to another. I just really think this would be a fun project to work on and a useful product.
Any thoughts?
Honestly I wouldn’t kill the idea just because the market is crowded. Most good markets are crowded.
The bigger question is whether there’s a very specific pain point existing tools still solve badly. The “client visibility” angle actually sounds more interesting than trying to build another generic PM tool.
I’d probably validate the workflow before building the whole platform though. Maybe talk to agencies/dev studios first and see what part of the client communication process annoys them the most.
This is also the kind of thing foundersbar.com helps founders think through a lot. Product validation, MVP scope, what should actually be built first, etc.
Have you faced this problem at work? If so perhaps start there.
This is a real problem which everyone faces to some degree, but I think too vague, you need a customer in mind (ideally you), then to talk to those specific customers and find out what pain points they have that you could solve. The market is crowded with general project management apps which target all sorts of users (monday, asana, ms project etc), so I wouldn't recommend making one of those.
So I think you need to focus on a particular type of customer, and the problems they have, rather than trying to build collaboration tools for everyone. For example design project management is very different to that for software developers or for marketing or sales people, and has very different challenges. Perhaps there is something in healthcare projects that you could help streamline?
PS I'm working on project management tools (for developers)
Thank you for taking the time to respond to me. The reason I am thinking about starting a project like this is due to past experiences. I freelance on the side and I find that I have a really hard time communicating with the client in a uniformed manner. Also, they have a hard time keeping track where I am with their project.
I envision a dashboard that the client logs into and can see everything about their project. Analytic graphs to gauge different types of metrics about their project . However, keeping it simple enough so it does not intimidate the client. This would also serve as a place where the client can ask questions, leave feedback, request new features, approve or deny items, sign contracts, etc. After the project is complete this could serve as a support portal if you are offering continued support.
With this I can only imagine there would need to be a good amount of developer tools on the back end. Pretty much like most other projects management SaaS products. For example Basecamp.
For me I am also a reseller of hosting services. I could see this also being a place the client can easily manage their hosting services as well.
I don't know about a market, but it sounds like a complex beast to code, for sure.
I agreee, more details would really help out.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago