Micro ISV Mistake #2

Submitted by Gavin Bowman on Mon, 2005-08-22 09:09.

This is the second in a series of posts on common Micro ISV mistakes. Without repeating my entire introduction from the first article, these mistakes are based on lessons learned over the last few years as I started my company, developed our products, and then tried to sell them. Discussion is, as always, welcomed and encouraged in the comments.

Mistake #2 is trying to be all things to all people.

This is a very easy mistake to make. Even if you don’t consciously choose to make a general purpose product from the outset, it creeps up on you. You start with a simple idea, identify a neat little market, plan your development, and know exactly where you’re going. Then you spot another market which you could also serve with just a little extra development, or you decide that if you spent a little more time, you wouldn’t need to limit yourself to that niche; you could attack the entire market. Even if you don’t think of it yourself, someone, an advisor, friend, relative, customer, or potential sales partner, will suggest it to you. It can be seductive and can trick you into feeling like a genius, you’ve gone from a small market to a massive market and you’re just getting started. You’ve actually made a terrible mistake.

Trying to create a product which you can sell to anyone will make your life harder and lower your chances of success. It also plays against some great advantages that you have as a Micro ISV. The mistake is going to hit you hard in three main areas.

Firstly, there will be a big development hit due to the increased complexity. Your general purpose product is going to take longer to develop than it would if it was specifically designed for a particular market. This will be especially true if you started out with a specific niche in mind, but decided to broaden your design, and even more so if you have domain knowledge in the niche, but not in the market as a whole. You will lose control of your schedule, and you will constantly find new areas of complexity which you need to address.

That might seem like a small price to pay for a better product and a bigger market, but your product is also going to suffer. By trying to be everything to everyone, your product is unlikely to be anything to anyone. In other words, your product may be great, but by trying to appeal to an entire market you could end up with something which is bland and confusing, and which doesn’t really do enough for anyone. In yet more words, rather than giving one niche 100% of what they need, you’ve given the entire market 70%... and it’s the remaining 30% which would have blown their minds. If you aren’t convinced that Micro ISVs need to exceed their customer’s expectations, Google “customer evangelists”, or wait for a CodeSniper to explain what they are and why they matter.

Finally, your marketing is going to suffer. You may think that being able to market the product to anyone will make your life easier, but that’s unlikely to be the case. As a Micro ISV if you are lucky enough to have a marketing budget it will be a limited one, so you really need to know where to spend it. Having too general a target, or too many targets, will only dilute your message. Even when you manage to bring potential customers to your site, they will be more excited by your product if you talk to them directly about their problem, general terms and broad concepts will only incite apathy.

I also mentioned earlier that this strategy plays against your Micro ISV advantages, and the most obvious of these is your size. As a Micro ISV, your size allows you to survive in markets which are too small for bigger companies to enter. If you identify a small niche market which may be worth less than a couple of million dollars per year, you can make a very comfortable living by giving them exactly what they want, Microsoft can’t. Without small companies like yours targeting them, these niches will be forced to custom build their solutions, or work around whichever big player offering is the closest fit.

I made this mistake with both of our products. I failed to appreciate the importance of identifying a suitable niche, or a specific enough problem to solve, and the results were that the initial development phase took longer than it should have and the products weren’t sufficiently targeted. Marketing has been difficult too, I don’t have any specific group to aim for, and as yet I don’t have a strong enough message or big enough budget to bring in a significant share of the wider markets. In both cases, by picking niche markets and developing less flexible but more targeted products, I could have saved a lot of sleepless nights.

In most of this article I’ve used the words niche and market, which may suggest that I don’t think you should develop software that could be used by a lot of people. In fact, you could substitute the words problem and problem domain for niche and market in most places. I’m not suggesting that you give up on solving a problem that everyone has, just that you stick to that problem and solve it before deciding you’ll tackle the entire problem domain. The core concept is that a Micro ISV product needs focus, whether it is solving one problem or targeting one niche.

To summarise, make sure you know who your customers are or what problem your product will solve. If you don’t, marketing will be a nightmare, the quality of the end product will suffer, and your initial development will take much longer.

Gavin Bowman's blog
Login or register to post comments

Good Call.

Submitted by Keith Casey on Mon, 2005-08-22 09:48.

I think that you are right on. As ISV's, we don't have the resources (time, money, customer base, marketing, etc) of giants such as Microsoft and therefore are putting a huge amount at risk by trying to play their role.

When a Microsoft solution only fits 70% of someone's requirements, most people don't worry about it and move on. When someone buys a custom solution from an ISV, it better cover more of the requirements...

Agreement

Submitted by Duane Gran on Mon, 2005-08-22 10:02.

While it is appealing to imagine software that everyone will use, thereby tapping a 6 billion user marketplace (as if), the biggest risk is identifying the user stories and use cases that drive development. Niche software is wonderfully optimized and much easier to produce. Besides, trying to satisfy all the people all the time is so untenable that you would have to be crazy to try it.

In addition...

Submitted by Keith Casey on Mon, 2005-08-22 10:58.

If you sell well in that niche, expansion is always an option because you'd have revenue, customer feedback, endorsements, etc.

If you expand before you have sales, you're trying to build from a base of nothing.

Thanks

Submitted by Gavin Bowman on Mon, 2005-08-22 14:21.

Thanks for all the feedback so far, and for the book tip.

It may seem crazy to try to please everyone, but I'm sure a lot of people either don't realise it, or fall into the habit by accident. I'm not sure which group I belonged to, probably a bit of both.

Archimedes

Submitted by nickn00039 on Tue, 2008-01-29 04:10.

40abda286b7f57a686e5f2c341d1c333
Archimedes was an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, astronomer and engineer. adriana volpe nuda, frasi d 'amore. Although little is known of his life, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. video gratis erotici, barche motore vendita usato. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics and the explanation of the principle of the lever. Moglie Racconti, video xxx celebrita. His early use of calculus included the first known summation of an infinite series with a method that is still used today. webcam chat erotica gratis, Vacanza a cayo largo. He is also credited with designing innovative machines, including weapons and the screw pump that bears his name. video gratis erotici, maria kanellis nuda. He is best known for allegedly exclaiming "Eureka!" after discovering what is known today as Archimedes' principle. Quattroruote Prezzi Fiat Grande Punto, Linguistica Generale. Archimedes died during the Siege of Syracuse, when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed. lg u8130 sblocco, clip art bambino. The relatively few copies of his treatises that survived through the Middle Ages were an influential source of ideas for scientists during the Renaissance. Case Prefabbricate Bungalows, Camera Knokke. The historians of Ancient Rome showed a strong interest in Archimedes and wrote accounts of his life and works, ventaclub sicilia, Prezzo Lancia Musa. while the discovery of previously unknown works by Archimedes in the Archimedes Palimpsest has provided new insights into how he obtained mathematical results. pompino cazzo grosso, ucraina ragazze. Carl Friedrich Gauss is said to have remarked that Archimedes was one of the three epoch-making mathematicians, with the others being Sir Isaac Newton and Ferdinand Eisenstein.

Knut

Submitted by nickn00039 on Tue, 2008-02-05 04:56.

ef1ad2590c9d04212413de836c40c833
Knut is a captive-born polar bear who was born at the Zoologischer Garten Berlin on 5 December 2006. paesi cee, stampe inviti prima comunione. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was subsequently raised by zoo keepers. Dieta Diverticolosi, Coniglio nani. He was the first polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo in over thirty years. porno attori gay, Valeria Vittorini Foto. At one time the subject of international controversy, he became a popular tourist attraction and commercial success. Mappa Raffadali, entra in chat. After the German tabloid magazine Bild ran a quote from an animal rights activist that seemingly called for the death of the young cub, a worldwide foto spiata gratis, uomo nudi neri. public outrage was caused as fans rallied in support of his being hand-raised by humans. Tassa Vidimazioni Libro Sociale Dell, Foto valeria marini. Children protested outside the zoo, and many emails and letters expressing sympathy for the cub's life were sent from around the world. quintiliano traduzione, Incentivo Acquisto Frigorifero. Knut became the center of a mass media phenomenon dubbed "Knutmania" that spanned the globe and quickly spawned numerous toys, media specials, DVDs, and books. riassunto decamerone calandrino, vintage hippie porno gallery. Because of this, the cub was largely responsible for a significant increase in revenue at the Berlin Zoo in 2007. trattori fiat usati, Manuale Numeri Di Telaio. Zoo attendance figures for the year increased by an estimated 30 percent, making the zoo the most profitable it has been in its 163 year history. Tassa Vidimazioni Libro Sociale Dell, tatuaggio zodiacale foto. Recently featured: History of American football Dookie Through the Looking Glass

Education of Daughters

Submitted by nickn00039 on Thu, 2008-02-07 07:54.

c276eb01213d33634ed5969a5b36d551
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters is British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's first published work. Ragazza Troia, classifica musica house tribale. Published in 1787 by her friend Joseph Johnson, Thoughts is a conduct book that offers advice on female education to the emerging British middle class. foto donna scopano animale, trucchi tomb raider pc. Although dominated by considerations of morality and etiquette, the text also contains basic child-rearing instructions, Moda Anno 90, Temi Nokia N80. such as how to care for an infant. software modello 730 2007, giochi flash sexy. An early version of the modern self-help book, the eighteenth-century British conduct book drew on several literary traditions, omnitel tabulati, Piscina Cuneo. such as advice manuals and religious narratives. Riparazione Orologio Rolex, Video Erika Neri. There was an explosion in the number of conduct books published during the second half of the eighteenth century, and Wollstonecraft took advantage of this burgeoning market when she published Thoughts. Giochi Di Ruolo, nere inculate. However, the book was only moderately successful: it was favourably reviewed, but only by one journal and it was reprinted only once. video sesso animale gratis, nudi in spiaggia. Although it was excerpted in popular magazines of the time, it was not republished until the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s. video caldi gratuiti, Legge 626 94. The book encourages mothers to teach their daughters analytical thinking, self-discipline, indice istat affitti, traduzione testo canzone linkin park. honesty, contentment in their social position, and marketable skills (in case they should ever need to support themselves).

Belarus

Submitted by nickn00039 on Tue, 2008-02-12 09:39.

885fe0adbe5b0d72eadbc407cb5ca461
The Constitution of Belarus is the supreme law of Belarus. Ti blu village, vecchia grasse nude. Adopted in 1994, three years after Belarus declared their independence from the Soviet Union, this formal document establishes the framework of the Belarusian state and government and enumerates the rights and freedoms of its citizens. Gif Animata Fantasy, foto grassone. The contents of the Constitution include the preamble, nine sections (including eight chapters) and one hundred and forty-six articles. programma decodificatore dvd, augurio promessa matrimonio. The contents were heavily influenced by constitutions of Western powers and from Belarus's time in the Soviet Union. software disegno progettazione giardino, raffaello cantante napoletano. While much of the Constitution explains how the government is established and carried out, an entire section deals with the rights and freedoms granted to citizens and residents. Gif Animata Fantasy, Forno Legna Pizzeria. The Constitution has been amended twice since the original adoption; in 1996 and in 2004. Cartoon Porno, fiche leccate. In the amendments approved by the Belarusian populace, the power of the presidency over the government was increased and the term limits for the presidency were eliminated. cazzo grossi nel culo, oops catturati tv celebrita. In the preamble of the Constitution, Belarus assumes the responsibility of its destiny as a member of the international community. Gibama, Traduzione testo iron maiden. To execute this responsibility, the government will show "adherence to values common to all mankind, founding ourselves on our inalienable right to self-determination," which is video chat gratis libere, frasi d amore lettera. "supported by the centuries-long history of development of Belarusian statehood." foto di donna in collant, video pompino. Belarus also pledges to honor the rights and freedoms of its citizens and to maintain a stable government that is run by the people based on the rule of law.

Quneitra

Submitted by nickn00039 on Sun, 2008-02-17 10:04.

22bd5b267dd11f8d4d2a4d517b563789
Quneitra is the largely destroyed and abandoned capital of the Quneitra Governorate in south-western Syria. video madameweb, Download Calcolatrice. It is situated in a high valley in the Golan Heights at an altitude of slightly less than 1000 metres above sea level. ita torrent, foto scooter zip sp piaggio elaborati. Quneitra was founded in the Ottoman era as a way station on the caravan route to Damascus and subsequently became a garrison town of some 20,000 people, trucchi most wanted, manga e hentay xxx. strategically located near the border with Israel. sex toon, porte scorrevoli vetro. On 10 June 1967, the last day of the Six-Day War, Quneitra came under Israeli control. zona ztl torino, Alba parietti macellaio. It was briefly recaptured by Syria during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, arredare monolocali, ragazze nude in pubblico. but Israel regained control in its subsequent counter-offensive. The city was almost completely destroyed before the Israeli withdrawal in June 1974. codici telecomando decoder sky per lg, lettera d amore copiare. It now lies in the demilitarized United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone (UNDOF) between Syria and Israel, cazzo nella figa e nel culo, Alba parietti macellaio. a short distance from the de facto border between the two countries. costruzione forno legna, software per arredare. Israel was subsequently heavily criticized by the United Nations for Quneitra's destruction; valore auto usata eurotax, Vacanza Mare Toscana. Syria was criticized by Israel for not rebuilding the city.