1. eBook
How to take a Software Product or Business App from Concept to
Success, and avoid innovation obliteration
www.sabretch.com

2. How to take a Software Product or Business App from Concept to Success,
and avoid innovation obliteration
A pragmatic approach to Product and Business Application Development that Startups, ISVs as well as
Enterprise Businesses can use in bringing innovative Apps to life
All too often App Development ventures end up in obliteration due to many What’s in this eBook
reasons. This approach aims to bring about the following business benefits
and puts an App development on a track which helps avoid common mistakes. Introduction 3
Write the Vision, make it clear 4
 Helps businesses unleash innovative concepts An example of a product vision 4
Determine the Revenue Model, Identify the ROI 4
 Focuses on marketplace and business success
Draw the Blueprints, create a product backlog 5
 Minimizes new product development risks Define the Architecture 6
 Helps eliminate uncertainties UI Design 6
Develop 7
Who should read this eBook? Version 1.0 7
Conclusion 8
 Entrepreneurs venturing into a Startup business
 ISVs looking to penetrate with new innovations
 Enterprise Businesses with limited capacity to innovate
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3. Introduction
Often a great startup idea or new product concept is abandoned half way through
development. Or an ISV goes on a ‘big bang’ approach and develops a full blown
product only to realize that it’s not exactly what its customers want.
This ‘Innovation obliteration’ is a common syndrome even amongst Enterprise
Businesses, where Enterprise Apps are taken through months of planning, and years of
development. By the time the App becomes available to business users, the competitive
advantage that can be gained through the innovation has eroded, or worse, the business
has changed and therefor the Application no longer relevant.
This eBook presents a set of practical steps that Startups, ISVs as well as Businesses
that are looking to develop new Apps can adopt. It keeps the fundamental of aligning the
App Dev process to business and marketplace success factors.
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4. Write the Vision, make it clear
An example of a product vision
Not having a beacon that guides all activities of a new concept could result in
a lot of ambiguity and product management chaos where things can easily
“ In today’s corporate world, email is our connection point to
our organization. Employees are assigned office work via
get out of hand. Writing down the product or application vision, and what it
emails. The disadvantage of email is that sender has no
aims to achieve in a business sense will help keep all activities aligned
idea on status of the task until a response email is sent or
towards a common goal and can be a ‘turn-to’ source whenever there is
verbally informed by email receivers. Tasks could be used
uncertainty and doubt in a decision making process.
to bridge this gap. But this could be done only within a
single email server. Task visibility becomes an issue within
organizations using multiple email servers.
Determine the Revenue model, identify the ROI
Instead of using traditional emails to assign tasks, eyeTask
Too many startups fail because the revenue model was not crystalized or an
will be used to share tasks between corporate users of
Enterprise cannot determine the ROI since it was not thought through initially.
different Email Servers. Tasks will be visible to all interested
For instance, a startup or ISV giving enough attention to the revenue and
parties within or outside the organization. This will give
billing model at this stage will enable the right mechanisms to be built in to the
more accountability to task owners (receivers), visibility for
product itself.
task originators (creators) and will give report ability for the
management to measure organization level productivity.
eyeTask will bridge the gap between inbox, calendar and
task events.
”
4

5. Draw the Blueprints, create a Product Backlog
While you may not be able to bring out each and every feature in the 1st
release of your product, it makes perfect sense to have a product blueprint
and a roadmap so that features can be rolled out incrementally.
A useful document that we have used in this process has been the Systems
SRS
Requirement Spec (SRS). We sit down with a concept owner and solidify the
product features and Use Cases. This is turned into a Business-Technical  What functionality will be critical for an initial launch?
document where both Product Managers as well as developers can reference  What can be considered as ‘bells and whistles’?
and make decisions on.  What will my users most appreciate?
 What will it take to get a critical mass of users on the
Once all the concepts and ideas have been captured, create a product
system?
backlog. Here, start asking the questions:
 What functionality will be critical for an initial launch?
 What can be considered as ‘bells and whistles’?
 What will my users most appreciate?
Prioritize
 What will it take to get a critical mass of users on the system?
Based on the answers to these questions, start creating a Product Backlog,
prioritize the features and plan out the product releases. Product Backlog
5

6. Define the Architecture
Often new products are produced through overnight hackathons or by outsourcing development to a company that promises a build in
a few weeks. This approach results in several rounds of ‘throw-away’ prototypes and tedious rework. All the while you lose out on
precious time and money where it could have been invested in producing something with tangible value.
Instead, by defining the Architectural approach before jumping in to the code will minimize rework and ensure that whatever is built is
extensible.
UI Design
Remember the saying ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’? This holds true in product
development too. Getting the User Interface screens designed early will give you a feel for
what the application is going to look like and will help shed light on a lot of areas. This could
also be a first step towards generating stakeholder feedback. By mapping the UI to user
personas, you will be able overcome several hurdles that may arise in the launch phase.
Developing the UI screens early in the App development process also helps a common
mistake of not giving enough thought to end user experience of software products and
business applications. Driven by the Web 2.0 era, present day users have become savvier and
expect a business app to function in a similar way and provide an experience they are familiar
with Facebook or Gmail.
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7. Fast Build
Armed with a detailed SRS, Architecture and Screen mockups, development can
now be super focused in getting a working product built in record time. Keeping
A Sprint: In product development, a sprint is a
things Agile and iterative will be key here. Plan out 2 – 4 week ‘Sprints’ in which set period of time during which specific work
releases take place. This will give enough headway to making sure things are on has to be completed and made ready for
review.
track and make adjustments where necessary.
Version 1.0
The moment we’ve all been waiting for. You will now have an actual product that
can be used for test marketing, beta launches, investment generation or even a
hard product launch. If executed properly, it would only have taken you as little
as 90 days to get to this point. FastBuild: We typically plan development in
90 day cycles where a working product of a
As you start generating user feedback, you can tweak your product and start concept is delivered.
bringing in features incrementally. This is simplified by the overall product
vision, blueprints and the architectural approach that was defined early on.
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8. Conclusion
In conclusion, a new Application Development venture can achieve the following goals by following a few practical steps as
illustrated above.
Test the Market Eliminate Uncertainty
This point can never be over stressed; take your product to Will they want this App, is it useful? - The all-important question.
market early, get user feedback. However, make sure you By getting a working model out into the hands of the people who
don’t distort the vision you set at the beginning. Keep matter most; the end users, you will be able to eliminate a great
asking the question; will this help achieve the ultimate goal? deal of uncertainty.
Almost 99% of the time a new App concept fills a void and is useful.
There may be certain tweaks that will need to happen from the
Put a team together, get their buy-in
initial release but it would rarely be rendered useless. The key will
Having a working product will help you better understand be in identifying exactly what the market wants.
what type of team you will need to make the product or
Generate Investment
application a success. Whether it’s an internal application or
a software product, giving your team something they can People invest in businesses they understand. For Startups,
believe in and can work towards will make a significant having a working product which can be demonstrated in its natural
impact. environment is going to be a significant resource in this endeavor.
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9. Real life stories
To see how an approach like this is being used to achieve business goals, visit our website
About Sabre Technologies
Sabre Technologies is a software services provider for ISVs, Startups and Technology driven Businesses. We specialize in Cloud
and Mobility Technologies, helping our clients build and deliver powerful, innovative applications that enhance their competitive
position and differentiation in the marketplace.
Our FastBuild approach delivers a working model of a product or business application concept in just 90 days. Through our product
blueprinting process, we ensure that the business and technical needs get crystallized while setting up a platform for long-term
product scalability and evolution. Our work is governed by a CMMI certified process, delivering superior quality and ensuring client
satisfaction.
Talk to us to find out how an approach such as FastBuild can help your Product or Application development
venture. contact@sabretch.com
Sabre Technologies Contact Us
752 Orion IT Park Email: contact@sabretch.com
Colombo 09 Tel: + 94114768800
Sri Lanka www.sabretch.com