After you have described how to approach and solve the customer problem in the Navigator field „Solution“, it is now time for prototyping. In the first field you describe which product or service you offer your customers. Try to consider all the services your product includes. This comprises, for example, services such as support, assistance, installations or product advice, which only come into effect after the actual sale.
Visualize your product ecosystem
The conventional way to define a product would be to process all functional aspects of it in succession and list them in written form. Today, however, it is more and more about offering entire systems, because more or less everything is already digitally connected with each other. Therefore, the focus on the product alone is rarely sufficient. A better approach is the central visualization of your product as the center of your system (also called ecosystem).
Visualization of a product ecosystem
Make your product experienceable
First of all, the most important thing is to make your product or service visible to others as soon as possible or even better to make it experienceable; It does not matter at all that the result is particularly beautiful, but that the idea and all connections can be understood immediately (therefore the world and also the models). Especially to better explain and discuss with others. This is how the first valuable feedbacks can be collected.
Prototyping in the milani workshop
MVP – less is more
The abbreviation MVP stands for “minimum viable product”. In short, the goal is to go into the market as quickly as possible with as few resources as possible, and thus to test the product at the customer. The basic idea is to obtain initial feedback from the market and to see whether the customer’s needs have been correctly assessed. An example is the scanmouse from the startup Dacuda. Dacuda’s first prototype was a self-made wooden box that included the optical unit with the software and was already fully functional to demonstrate the power of the software technology and to attract potential customers. Only later the prototype turned into the nicely designed mouse.
Learn more about the sixth module „Product/Service“ of the Startup Navigator in the handbook.