Solution Development Best practices by Ajay Batra

Solution development needs deep insights, better attained working with a relevant practitioner

Development of a solution is best achieved by co-creation with the customer. Launch as much early as possible

The purpose of Solution Development is to leverage customer and market insights for developing products or services with appropriate functionality and quality; and to prepare the startup for the upcoming launch. This reduces the risk of spending founding team’s resources in developing solutions that may not be well aligned with the needs and wants of the customers; or may have either too many or too few features.

What is the Solution Development Process?

In a phased manner, the solution’s functionality is designed, implemented, tested, piloted and released. Solution development Process are implemented in close coordination with other planning and preparatory activities, e.g., marketing, related to the launch of the venture. The greatest method to satisfy the requirements for an output is to design solutions. Its objectives are to: examine baseline requirements and possible solutions to meet them; choose the best solution; and write a solution specification.

Source- Solution Development - P2P Foundation

Process 1
Build a development team

After identifying a business problem, you must first determine who will be involved in the creation of the solution. Create a team to assist you in planning, developing, and supporting your solution. We recommend putting together a Winshuttle team to help you plan, design, create, and support your solution.

Process 2

Begin the process of discovery.

Determine the issue you're attempting to tackle. Describe your strategy for resolving the problem. Recognize the elements of your solution. Determine possible dangers and bottlenecks (so you can plan around them).

Process 3

Develop the solution

Once the requirements have been approved and frozen, development can begin. Because different developers may contribute to a solution, it is critical to employ a sequential development method.

Process 4

Support and maintain
You may put support and maintenance for the solution in place in this environment. Administrative activities such as maintaining SharePoint Groups, Participants, and/or Contributors for the Solution can fall under this category. It may also require upgrading any data connection that are currently in use.

If any problems arise while the Solution is in production, try to duplicate the problem in a development environment first. Once the issue has been replicated and a fix has been identified, the fix should be tested before being applied to production.

Source-support.novell.com

WHAT PROBLEMS YOU SOLVE AT THIS STAGE

• The founding team begins building the product or service too early, without truly appreciating the customers’ needs and their willingness to pay
• Poorly-defined product or service with unclear market differentiation
• In-adequate marketing and sales planning before launching the product/service
• Investing time and money in developing products or services with many features, only a few of which are valued by customers
• Building a product or service with quality, usability and performance issues
• Launching the product or service without adequate piloting with potential customers
• Mis-alignment between the team developing the product or service, and the marketing team

HERE ARE KEY PRACTICES TO SOLVE THEM

• Founding team reviews the information in start- up operating canvas and learning from solution concept validation
• Prerequisites for developing the solution are identified
• Functionality of the proposed product or service is aligned with customers’ needs and wants
• A development road-map for the product or service is prepared
• A plan for developing and piloting the solution is prepared
• Learning from solution piloting are analyzed
• A plan for developing the solution is prepared and approved
• The solution is developed, reviewed and approved for launch
• Strategies for introducing the product/service in the market are identified
• Criteria and measurements for determining the success of the startup launch are defined
• Startup operating canvas is revised, as needed and shared with relevant stakeholders

This is an extract from Ajay Batra's book -The Startup Launchbook (www.startuplaunchbook.com), published by Wiley