School of Communication Arts 2.0

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Unit Purpose and Aims

The purpose of this unit is;

Creative businesses more than most have tight margins and less spare money to get things wrong. This unit will equip the  learner with a full understanding of the notion of proving a concept and how to do this effectively and efficiently.

Learning Outcomes

Learners will;

1 Understand what proof of concept means

Learners can;

1.1 Describe what proof of concept means

1.2 Evaluate a given example of proof of concept

2 Understand what a feasibility study is and what it contains.

2.1 Explain what is involved in undertaking technology and system feasibility testing.

2.2 Describe what is involved in undertaking economic feasibility testing.

2.3 Articulate what is involved in undertaking Legal feasibility  testing.

2.4 Explain what is involved in undertaking Operational feasibility  testing.

2.5 Discuss what is involved in undertaking Schedule feasibility testing.

Learning Tools, Resources & Links

Things that will help the learner develop understanding of this unit;

Mentors – please add your ideas, examples, case studies, links to articles, videos, etc. here.

I am going to throw down some thoughts and examples on Removing Concept,

Technical and Commercial Uncertainties of a great idea before proceeding to

market.

I successfully used this approach a number of times such as with a new Vodafone

concept and innovative music concepts.

Assumptions

You, or your client has a great idea and have done some research on what they

think the market need is and what the product has to do.

Step 1 – Summarise the definition of the product and its commercials

During this stage it is always useful doing workshops and involving others whom

bring different skills and can provide added value.

Try and stay away from too much detail at this stage, we are only outlining the business

proposition.

1. What is it? is it a device, a service, a “thing”, a combination of all three?
2. What does it do? what technology is needed? Creating something new?
3. Ouline a roadmap for the product? such as new features – these may be usefulto open new markets
4. Who would use it? i.e. who is the target audience for the product (0-7, or < 25 etc.)
5. Why are they the target audience? Is it consumer facing? Is it business facing?
6. Define the market. Is it in the UK? Is it global? Be realistic, dont try and conquer the the world.
7. Is there any IP that can be created in order to protect or disrupt the market?
8. Think about rough costs to develop the product?
9. How are you going to make money from the product? Define the revenue drivers and channels for the product? Is it B2C, B2B or both?
10. Do some initial business analysis on the commerical return

Okay, so we know what it is we want to sell, we know whom we want to sell it to,

we know where we want to sell it and how it earns money. So, how can we be sure

it will deliver all we dreamed about? The next stage is where we remove sufficient

concept, technical and commercial uncertainty that we have confidence it is worth

taking to market.

Step 2 – Plan a Validation Phase

There are three strands, or work streams, running in parallel, to understanding the risk of your product and its market.

These are:-

1. Removal of Technology Uncertainty
2. Removal of Concept Uncertainty
3. Removal of Commercial Uncertainty

For each work stream you need to define inputs and outputs.

You also need to ensure value of each thread. i.e. you need to be able to measure “success”.

Removing Technical Uncertainty

The goal is to identify the technology required for the product and quantify risks.

1. What technologies are needed in the product?
2. Define a technology architecture for the product.
3. What is being developed and being bought in?
4. Can any new technology actually be developed?
5. How do we build it? Who do we need? Can it be built?
6. Usability and Inclusion is key here for any consumer product.  Get User Interfaces right for your consumers. Get the weight right.  Get the shape and feel right! Does it work for left and right handed people?
7. What is the lead time for bought in technology and is it in good supply?
8. Can we create patents for any technology that is being developed?
9. Are we crossing any existing patents? Employ a patent lawyer or an organisation to execute a ptent search.
10. Specify and define a prototype for a Pilot Trial – in line with Product Spec. There s no need to develop the full product but make sure you include any “high” risk technology!
11. Develop a prototype for a Pilot Trial . You may want to re-use some of the work done for the pilot trial in the full product to expedite time to market.
12. Test it to make sure it is robust enough for a trial.
13. Measure the accuracy of your planning for development, build and testing. Use this to imporve your estimates for full product development.

Now we have a good understanding of the technlogy involved, how to build it, any any risks associated with technology and build of the product.

Removing Concept Uncertainty

The goal is to actually run a live trial of a prototype of the product and measure consumer feedback and judge success.

1. Define a trial for the prototype in order to get direct market feedback. What will the trial be? Who will be involved? How long will it last? Where will it be held? What are measuring in order to judge success? etc.
2. Identify trial participants and how they will be encouraged to participate?
3. Identify your team for the trial, someone to manage, product support, consumer support etc..
4. Run the trial. Talk with the participants about the product and what you want them to do during the trial. Who can they talk to for help?
5. Dont expect the product and trial to run smoothly. It will have problems, so plan ahead in anticipation on what problems there maybe and how to manage them.
6. After the trial, give feedback to the participants and do a post mortem with them in a workshop, make sure you get as much feedback as you can.
7. Run an internal post mortem on the pilot trial and re-iterate the concept if neededd.

The pilot trial will provide great feedback and must be fed into the other workstreams if needed.

Removing Commercial Uncertainty

Here we do a deep dive into the commercial apsects of the proposition and building

a business case.

1. What is the value chain and where does your product fit in? will you sell directly? Will you need a consumer facing vendor?
2. Cost out in detail developing, manufacturing and enhancing the product?
3. Define and cost the team required to deliver the business proposition
4. Check with technology suppliers on costs and lead times
5. Check with manufacturers on costs and lead times
6. Check with distributors on costs and lead times
7. Do proper business analysis. What are my Capex and Opex costs? How much will it sell  for?
8. You will then be able to calculate time for ROI, on going profit margins and do a full sensitivity analysis. This is important for any investor.
   
9. Do proper market research on the consumers and target terrotories. Find out more about the target demographics. Who are they? what price will they pay?  Why would they buy it? Where will they buy it from? etc. Who are the competitors? What is their market share? You may want to employ a market research organisation to help out and even run some workshops to get direct feedback.
10. Do market validation with trusted experts. Under NDA talk with organisations within the value chain on their thoughts on the prospect. But choose carefully!
11. Look into any legal aspects, such as copyright and target terrotory laws, and dont forget import, export taxes!
12. Use information from the Pilot Trial to refine the business case.

So we now know how it will cost, how much money we will make and who will

buy it. We can now submit the business case to our investors.

Conclusion

We now have a good understanding of what the product is, its risks technically/concpetually/commercially, how to build it, how consumers feel about it, how to improve it and a business case.

As a final note, you may have to run another “refined” pilot trial if significant changes are demanded from consumers or stakeholders. But keep faith in your business proposition!