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September 27th, 2018

9/27/2018

 
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Why You Need to Develop Buyer Personas

Author: ​Paul Arnold
Do you know your future customers? Probably not, reading the future is not in many people's skill sets. However, with some research and educated guesses, you can build a picture of future clients.  
 
This process is called developing buyer personas. Buyer personas are composite pictures of your typical customers. There are a quite a few benefits to creating buyer personas, but the biggest ones are: 
 
  • You get a clearer picture of your present customers, and why they work with your business.
  • With a buyer persona in mind, you can determine what types of people and industries are most likely to be interested in your services. This allows you to direct your marketing to their sectors and not waste money on advertising to low-profit markets.
  • You learn how your customers and future clients shop for services and make purchasing decisions.
  • Developing buyer personas helps you structure your business, so it runs efficiently. By knowing your buyer personas, you can place your best resources in positions where they will have the most impact. 
 
If you are considering beginning a sales and marketing campaign for your cloud SaaS business, you must create buyer personas. They are the heart of sales and marketing.
 
However, even if a plan isn't in the works, any business can benefit from in-depth knowledge about their customers. 
 
How To Create A Buyer Persona
 
Creating buyer personas requires a lot of research and conducting deep customer insights. The more you do, and the broader you get, the better understanding you will have of prospective clients. You can begin with a survey of your current customers.  
 
The survey should cover everything from basic demographics of buyers and companies, to asking about their current problems or strengths as they relate to your product.  
 
What you are trying to find out is who and why a company would buy your service, the size of the business, their budgets, markets, and other information that helps you understand the ‘pains’ the company is experiencing.
 
But, the most significant question you will want to ask is, why do they take some actions and not others?  Why would they use your service? Why would they consider working with your company? 
 
But don't just research your current customers, you will also want to get out and talk to prospective customers, current employees, and communicate with other stakeholders in your industry and beyond.
 
The best employees to speak with about your prospective clients is your sales staff. They are the ones out on the front lines of marketing. They are on the streets and in the meetings learning about emerging needs of businesses. Speak with them and get a first-hand account of what they experience. 
 
The next thing you want to do is compile all the data into one document. Then comes the next step, finding the trends.  
 
Trend and Habits
 
After the data is compiled, start looking for patterns. What kinds of actions do your customers repeat? Are there trends that are specific to one group and not to another? Look for trends within industries, regions, size of budgets, etc. Look for patterns that explain behaviours or decisions within a company. 
 
As you discover and list the trends, your buyer personas are going to emerge.  
 
Create a buyer persona with a name and a representative photo and assign those habits and trends to the persona. Make up a name for the persona, because this will help during marketing meetings and keep things organised. This will give you a broad picture of who is buying your products, and who is most likely to buy your products.  
 
How Many Personas Do You Need?
 
You need to create as many as you need to represent your customer segments. If you do business with a variety of industries, you may want to create a persona for each one. Or, if you do a lot of business with one company or government agency, you might want to create buyer personas for each of their departments.  
 
There might also be a lot of differences between the people in your customer segments. These differences can range from education to cultures to geography. If necessary, you may want to create a persona based on one those demographics.
 
After all, a prospective client with a University degree in one area may have much different buying habits than a client with a University degree in another region. 
 
Don't worry about having too many or too few personas. The idea is to understand the people most likely to benefit from your product. And, ultimately, direct your marketing towards them.
 
Resources 

There are a lot of buyer persona resources available on the internet such as the HubSpot Tool - https://www.hubspot.com/make-my-persona
 
Buyer personas are a powerful tool for companies. If your company is considering a change to their sales and marketing campaign or want a better understanding of your market before going to market and raising investment, consider doing research and creating some buyer personas or, reach out to the Vivolution team who will be glad to answer any questions you may have. Contact us at hello@vivolution.co.uk

June 15th, 2018

6/15/2018

 
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5 Critical Considerations for
​a Successful Mobile App

Author: Dr Gavin Scruby
So you’ve got a great idea for an app. Everyone will want to use it and you’ll take over the world. Well, you’ve got the same idea as the other 20,000 people publishing new apps to the App Store every month. That’s great, but unless you’re really careful, all that effort could be for nothing – think how many new apps you actually use consistently each month. We can’t promise that these tips will make your app a success but you need to have considered all of these points before you even start looking at building something.

Okay, so you have an app idea and you think it’s a good one. There are many things that will affect how well it does, and most of them depend on the execution, design, responsiveness, or even whether it just happens to catch the Zeitgeist or media imagination (think Flappy Bird). There are some more fundamental questions that you need to answer before anything is built though, and this will decide whether it’s even worth taking the idea to business case. Let’s have a look at them.

Why would a user download your app?

This will not be as obvious to a potential user as it is to you. If you can’t get the essential idea over to someone in about 20 words, it’s too convoluted. Additionally, a slightly prettier news reader might be just the new sensation you’re looking for, but is that also the case for everyone else? Think of things like:
  • Write your “20 word pitch” – if you can’t get it across in 20 words your users will struggle to see the point within their attention span.
  • Does the app do something useful and new that isn’t just a rehash of existing products?
  • What marketing and channels can you use to make your app stand out?

Why would a person stay in the app once it is open (its stickiness)?

Once a user opens your app, how long does your user stay in it? One of the key value indicators for advertisers/acquirers/investors is how long average sessions are. Ask yourself:
  • How are features designed such that they will keep the user doing something?
  • How does the app lead the user from one part to the next for as long as possible without losing interest?
  • What new things can happen while the user is in the app that makes them do something else?

Why would a user re-open the app once they’ve closed it?

This is something that’s often neglected. There are many apps that are opened once and then just clutter the phone’s home screen, never to be used again. The number of return sessions is another key metric for investors. You have to have a strategy for getting the user back in to the app after the first use. If new content appears and the user isn’t told, what is there to nudge re-engagement? Consider things such as:
  • Is there a reason for the user to check the app each day?
  • What can happen in the app that then notifies the user?
  • Can email be used to drive the user back into look at new content?

What drives user growth?

This is related to the question “Why would a user download your app?” but here we mean how do users introduce new users?
  • What would make a user want to tell others about the app?
  • Can they share an invite (think of SMS, email, Facebook etc.)?
  • Can they send a teaser to other users in some way?
  • Do they get anything for doing this?

How does the app make money?

This is more complicated than saying 59p/download and assuming development costs and profit will be covered. Many people will not want to pay for something before seeing some value. Some users will just hate adverts – it depends on the type of app and how adverts are integrated. You need some back of the envelope calculations to be certain the numbers stack up, at least roughly. Make sure you think about:
  • Is the app a one off that depends on downloads or can you have a subscription model? How much can you realistically charge for this?
  • Do you need a free and paid version to tease your idea? Will people even download a paid versions from the outset or are free-paid conversions a better bet?
  • For games, freemium is popular but it doesn’t usually work outside of this area – can you create a tiered pricing structure or recurring revenue if the app is not a game?
  • As well as development, how much ongoing support is needed?
  • How much do you need to spend on third party services (hosting, subscription data feeds etc.)?

Even if you have good answers to all of these questions, that doesn’t mean you’ll be successful. So much depends on the execution and luck, but having these answers in place will at least give you the start of a business plan or make it obvious that your great idea is not great enough… yet. Good luck!

May 28th, 2018

5/28/2018

 
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GDPR Myths

Author: Dr Gavin Scruby
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is almost here, and we are seeing its effects inveigling its way into everyday consumer life. Whether it is in our email inbox or on a social media platform, we are being prompted to review new privacy policies and give our consent to receive emails. The feeling of confusion among both consumers and businesses is real and powerful. The media is having a field day with GDPR-related stories, while others may be benefiting from providing additional legal consultancy. It is indeed a complex regulation though, so the confusion is understandable. Many businesses – especially smaller ones that can’t afford compliance staff or don’t have legal teams – rely on advice given to them by consultancies that may not entirely be as expert as they portray themselves. Be very aware. Indeed, this article itself shouldn’t be seen as official legal advice. It is worth evaluating, however, the actions that are being taken as a result of GDPR myths.

Myth or fact?

Some businesses have gone to the extremes of wiping out entire mailing lists to reduce the risks associated with data, as in the Wetherspoons example. Is this really necessary for GDPR compliance? The simple answer is no. Businesses do not have to start from scratch in order to be able to send communications or marketing emails to their customers. What happened with this case is that the business in question (Wetherspoons) took the business decision of not using email as a method of keeping in touch with their customers. They decided that they do not want to hold any customer emails in their database. Although we cannot know exactly why they did this, it could be because they are unsure if they received clear consent to contact those email addresses;they do not want to risk being fined if a data breach takes place or mass emails are sent by mistake to customers.

Business-wise this could make sense for Wetherspoon as their brand is so strong that they may not necessarily need to use email marketing as part of their strategy. Understandable of course, but it also shows a lack of confidence in a company’s existing data protection controls. GDPR is not a huge extension over the Data Protection Act, which people should be following already. If you handle large amounts of data and you are not sure where it came from, then going down the Wetherspoons way may make sense for your business; nonetheless, deleting all your data and starting from scratch is not what GDPR is about.

Getting fresh consent from your mailing list is another popular action that is overflowing our email inboxes. Although the GDPR sets the bar high for consent and it is vital that you check your company’s records to ensure your existing consents meet the GDPR standard, obtaining fresh consent from all of your existing customers is nota GDPR necessity. If your mailing list consists of customers with whom you already have an existing relationship, who have either purchased goods or services from you, then it may not be necessary to obtain fresh consent. You also have to think twice before emailing your customers a long complicated email about opting in. Is the text easy to understand? Is it long? Do you have a mechanism in place for subscribers to unsubscribe? You may risk non-compliance anyway if the email is difficult to follow and the information is lost in a long email. Your customers need to be able to clearly understand what they are consenting to.

It is also vital to remember that consent is only one of the forms with which you are legally allowed to process data. There are six lawful bases under the GDPR: 1) consent, 2) contract, 3) legal obligation, 4) vital interests, 5) public task, and 6) legitimate interests. During your preparations to GDPR, you have had to understand why and how you are storing and processing data and identify which legal basis applies to your business. Therefore, if your business already has contractual legal basis with your customers, and that includes emailing them notifications about a service they have signed up for, then you may not necessarily need to get fresh consent to contact them, even if you want to offer a further service to them.

GDPR will evolve in practice; if not in word

Just as GDPR is building on previous data protection laws, GDPR will also evolve over time. This will apply to how the law is interpreted when court cases take place. We just don’t know yet how case law will be applied. Nevertheless, just as the interpretation will evolve from court cases, your business will also need to continually be evolving with the GDPR. You can’t just do the preparation, say you are compliant and sit back. The processes put in place due to the GDPR will have to be followed and adhered to. Just as with your preparation to implementation, you will have to:

  • Know where your customer data is stored, and why
  • Know how you store that data and how it is protected
  • Be able to correct, and delete, the data if needed
  • Delete any data that you identify as not being used
  • Review third parties processing your customer data
  • Be able to prove all of this with evidence.

​If you have these checks and balances in place, then being compliant with GDPR will be far easier throughout your business’ journey with data protection.

Don’t let the law scare you. Take advantage of it to help you provide better customer service. People want to feel empowered and that they are in control of the personal information that companies hold about them. Being transparent about data protection, and following GDPR laws, should confirm that you are doing the right thing. This will be more to the spirit of GDPR than any box-ticking compliance regime, and will serve you far better with your customers.

April 04th, 2018

4/4/2018

 
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How to choose a product development company

Author: Dr Gavin Scruby
I wrote this article after helping someone who had to engage a product development company for the first time. It's not really for people who work in product development professionally, or for larger projects. Nevertheless, it does contain though a lot of things I wish I'd known earlier in my own career when comparing product development partners.

Introduction at some point you may have a software product idea that you need to turn into reality. This can be both an exciting and a scary time. Often, you won’t have the development skills to build a product yourself so you’ll almost inevitably need to engage an agency or software development company to help. It’s a big step though to take your carefully nurtured idea and release it into someone else’s hands. This relationship can end up fractious and acrimonious even at the best of times, so choosing the best partner is incredibly important. I should note that this guide is aimed at people with little or no software product experience, taking on projects between £10K and about £200K. If they get much larger, you really should consider engaging professional expertise.

Right now, I work with both sides of this process: as a buyer in my role as CIO of SmartDebit and as supplier in my non-exec director role at Open Frequency. However, I've experienced both sides of this divide for many years, so I thought it might be helpful to note some things I wish I'd known earlier in my career.

I should point out here that it doesn’t matter whether it’s an app, a website or an enterprise software system, or whether you represent a company or an individual; the same concerns apply when choosing a partner. You will also have to be aware that for no sinister reasons, not all suppliers will suit all clients – their working processes just have to click with yours.

One often overlooked way to smooth this whole process is to hire in your own specialist product manager or project manager, separate from the product development company. This can look like a needless expense, but I've saved people significant amounts of time and money with just a few days consultancy. It really helps to have someone who has walked the walk on your side.

If you're going to do this yourself though, these are some areas that I've found are of particular interest: the company itself, its skills and ability to deliver, common gotchas and contractual considerations. There's far more of course that could be said, but these form a good basis for comparison.

The companyAn important thing to consider with any agency is its history and track record. Apart from the obvious checks that it's still going to be here tomorrow, you need to look at how customers are treated. Make sure you verify the following:

Repeat businessHappy customers come back. Dissatisfied ones don’t. Ask them how many of their customers come back, and crosscheck this with their promotional material.

Credible larger clientsThis isn’t because larger clients are better; it’s because they show that the business is real and has been able to attract, engage and deliver to a company that is likely to be bigger, more experienced and difficult to please than an individual or small company. Smaller agencies won't always have this, but larger clients have no issue using small agencies for work, so this evidence may well be there.

Available referencesIt goes without saying that if they have happy clients, those clients will be willing to talk to you. Even if you don’t want to talk to them, get the names and contact details anyway so you know they exist.

Product historyThis is an odd one, but important if you’re taking a product to market. You want to verify how much work the company has done producing real products, rather than one-off campaigns. Campaign apps are not products. Many agencies carry out a lot of “fire and forget” deliveries for single events. It can be their sole service. These don’t need the same kind of quality, scalability and processes in place to be delivered. You need to make sure that the agency (and the individuals within it) have experience delivering products with a lifetime longer than a few months. If they don’t get this right, it’s like trying to build a house on sand when you come to extend and scale your product.

How does it feel meeting them?It might seem an obvious question, but do you get on with them? It's not just about money. They have to feel right to fit with your way of working (or vice versa). In a relationship that will be tested when things inevitably start to fray, you need to know that your working relationship will be solid. Are they reasonable? Are they responsive? Do they get frustrated easily? Do they have the same ethos as you?
Skills and ability to deliverYou’ve found a supplier you trust who has the right track record. You now need to check that they have the right skills to deliver your particular product end-to-end. Just remember that a chain is only as good as its weakest link so if they fail in one of these areas, it may affect the whole project.

Business analysisThe business analysis stage is where you take your ideas and turn them into detailed requirements, like a low-level set of schematics. It’s often helpful to have an independent consultant help with this so you know fully what you want before going to a supplier. That way things don’t get missed. If you do leave it to the agency, make sure you find out if they will estimate costs before scoping or whether there’s a significant outlay first before they will produce an estimate or quote. Have a look at the kind of information they’ll produce during the business analysis phase. If it is comprehensive you can at least make a decision whether to go somewhere else for the build if the quote is too high.

User ExperienceUser experience (UX) is the modern term that includes user interface design. Sometimes it includes actual drawing and designing graphics for the interface but it can also just mean designing how the product will flow, what should be on each screen and how it should be laid out. Have a look at the supplier’s previous projects to see if the user flow is good and if it looks clean and modern. Many people have trouble recognising good design so if you have a design-professional friend, get them involved too.

GraphicsIf the supplier provides graphic design services separately from its products and UX, have a look at their other design materials too. Their designers will do the products as well so you can get a good idea of their product results from any design work they’ve done. If they don’t have designers, find out how they do graphics. If they use external people you may get charged cost rates for any extra work done during development rather than having the flexibility of in-house staff.

If you like their website, ask them if they developed it themselves. I’ve seen seen several agencies that get someone else to build their site when it’s a service they claim to offer expertise in themselves. If on the other hand you don’t like their website, why are you considering them as an agency?

DevelopmentLook at the pedigree of the supplier’s programmers. What have they done? Anything recognisable or big? How much experience do they have in the technologies needed for your project? Programming skills are probably the hardest thing to assess in product development, so you’ll need to rely on CVs, experience level and previous projects.

If you have engaged your own independent specialist, he or she can also vet the supplier for skills that would be relevant to the way he or she thinks your project should be built, or even help negotiate that approach with the supplier.

TestingHow does the supplier test things? Do they employ specialist (and ISEB or equivalently qualified) testers? What is their test regimen? Do they have automated testing as well as manual testing? What are considered passing and failing bugs (this is important to define at contract as something that may be really important to you may just be trivial or below the fix threshold for a supplier - check how they define acceptable issues)?

Early live supportWhat’s their warranty once you go live? How long is it valid for? What is out of scope? What's on paper may look good, but here’s where talking to previous clients can really help.

Ongoing relationshipWhat happens once your product is built, deployed and being used? Give some thought to how you will work with the agency thereafter, and whether you need specific terms in the contract to handle this. If you will be hiring your own team, make sure the handover costs are defined and that any essential documentation is included. If you want to continue the relationship with the agency, make sure you have a good idea of the costs and rates for follow-up work.

Company sizeIt doesn't really matter how big the supplier is. What matters is what resources can they draw upon when things go wrong. What happens if their key programmer is ill? Who is going on holiday during your project? What happens if a much more important client needs something done in the middle of your project? It's worth investigating the back-up resources available to you. For a small company, there may be nothing, but at least you can tell if they consider it a risk that they will take seriously. You can also investigate how they deal with some of the situations we've mentioned.

GotchasThere are some general things to check with a supplier. You could incur significant cost down the line if they're not clear. If the company is reputable, they should be happy to answer:

  • How do they incorporate flexibility for internationalisation? (This is so that there is future flexibility for international growth with your product.) Some developers ignore the requirements for this; some go overboard on "what ifs". If you know you will never need this, it may be possible to save money by avoiding internationalisation support.
  • How do they deal with maintenance issues after deployment (change, bugs, enhancements)? You need to know how they deal with after-contract work, and most importantly, how that will be priced compared to project work.
  • What development methodology do they use? (When you find this out, look it up. Check that it is recognised, and fits with your own ethos and ways of working.)
  • You might want to be able to code review at any point, at no additional cost, to ensure that code is both sufficiently commented and documented for future development – how would they make this possible? (You might not plan to do this as you'd need a specialist but it does ensure you can bring in independent vetting if needed.)
  • How do they manage change control during a project? (If something changes at either end, or there's a technical surprise, how much cost will there be and how is it managed? This should be written into the project terms.)
  • Is any of the work likely to be subcontracted? You want it to be contractual that work can only be subcontracted with explicit agreement. (I have seen companies take on work then subcontract to different, sometimes cheaper, teams or individuals. You need to guard against this.)


Contractual considerationsThat last point leads us onto contracts. With a software project there are a number of important things to consider in the contract itself, to make sure you don't get caught out. It's not that suppliers are often trying to fool you, but what is standard practice for them may not be obvious to a new customer. For example, you really need to make sure there are no hidden costs or licences involved that get exposed on delivery and that all Intellectual Property (IP) transfers to you at the end of the project. I’ve seen people get caught by suppliers who keep ownership of IP to lock the client in to them.
Let's look at some example clauses that might usefully be included. Of course, the notes below do not constitute legal advice and are not written in legal format: you should get all contracts drafted by a qualified lawyer. These are just some pointers to common things I've seen tripping people up:

  • All intellectual property developed in the app, database and any other work performed under the contract becomes the sole property of the Client upon payment.
  • Any connections with interfaces not owned by the Supplier will be agreed with the Client before use, along with price limits.
  • Any connections with interfaces or services owned by the Supplier will be agreed with the Client before use. As part of that agreement, the Client will be granted a perpetual licence to use the interfaces at termination of the contract, at commercial rates agreed before the interface is used.
  • Any hosting or third party services must be set up in the name of the Client and be available at project termination, including all data hosted, at no extra cost.
  • At project termination, all code, data and documentation will be handed to the Client, in a state that can be compiled, and with sufficient documentation to understand it. This will be signed off by the Client as part of the final handover and payment.
  • Any work subcontracted to another company or team will be signed off and agreed by the Client. Any work done under subcontract without agreement will be classed as a breach of contract.


Final thoughtsThis guide only scratches the surface of things you might consider. Different issues and considerations will appear for different kinds of project and supplier. The best approach is to engage a specialist who can help: on supplier assessment, business plan and contract analysis. Of course, when you're on a tight budget, that's not always possible - I've been there too. Hopefully I've provided some ideas on the types of things to assess when looking at potential partners.
The last thing to mention is that you never get this kind of analysis right 100% of the time. Even experts won't, so don't get too hung up on details - just make sure you're comfortable with the larger points. Good luck!

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