Everything You Should Know about Lean Canvas

VITALII KALENSKYI — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 10:44:04 +0000

The key to success in life is effective communication. We constantly communicate: with each other, with our communities, with companies and brands. Many of the environments we spend a lot of time in are essentially just vehicles for different types of communication, especially online. Perhaps the most essential type of communication to do well though is with yourself.

When that first small sparkle of a product or startup idea starts developing in your mind, your first order of business is to translate it into a physical format. There, an abstract starting point can gain clarity and definition, so that your own understanding of your idea is crystallized, making it much easier to explain to others.

In “times gone by”, company leaders created elaborate business plans to achieve this clarity. These were thoroughly researched documents which took months to prepare. Obviously, startups at the ideation stage do not have the time or resources to waste on a similar approach to business plan creation.

That’s why, for the sake of startups, Ash Maurya transformed the “Business Model Canvas” by Alexander Osterwalder into the Lean Canvas.

LEAN CANVAS TEMPLATE

WHAT IS LEAN CANVAS

Lean Canvas presents the hypothesis of a business model in the form of a one-page document. Additionally, Lean Canvas is a testing and validation tool for this hypothesis. A Lean Canvas consists of 9 blocks/boxes, which you have to fill in to brainstorm your possible business models, key activities, appropriate strategies, starting priorities, and ongoing learning goals. The Lean Canvas squeezes all of this info into a highly portable and easily readable format.

Lean Canvas is a problem-solution approach. It helps eliminate everything unnecessary from the very beginning. It saves time and resources and can be updated constantly. The chief purpose of Lean Canvas is to increase the success rate of the venture, as well as reduce the risk of failure.

Lean Canvas helps answer the questions of most lean startups who want to become real businesses:

What is our product?
Who are our customers?
How can we make money?

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How to Outsource Your Web Development And Make It Count

VITALII KALENSKYI — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 14:24:33 +0000

Thinking about Software Development Outsourcing? Check out common concerns and real risks, like different time zones and language barriers, to get to know how to evaluate your potential outsourcing partner and make the process transparent, cost-effective and efficient.

The popularity of web development outsourcing is ubiquitous today. The outsourcing business is booming and thriving because it provides direct access to top technology talent on an at-need basis at reasonable prices.

Leading companies, who want to maintain a competitive edge, cut costs on software development and focus on their strategic goals, are turning to web development outsourcing. That’s because it’s a reasonable and affordable way to build your website or web application, without the need to invest resources hiring and retaining an in-house team of web developers.

In order to outsource web development successfully and smoothly, your company needs to be aware of the common pitfalls and know how to avoid them.

COMMON CONCERNS AND REAL RISKS OF OUTSOURCING WEB DEVELOPMENT

Hidden costs

It’s possible for hidden costs to add up to 60% onto the initial price of outsourcing services! Unforeseen expenditures may be incurred by a variety of factors commonly overlooked when project requirements are being determined.

Some hidden costs that could easily remain unaccounted for:

Travel costs (it’s likely that you will want to visit your service provider and invite them to your office at least several times).
Operations and infrastructure realignment (new virtual environments, change to internal processes, security, and authentication, etc.).
The transition of knowledge (training and explaining your processes to an overseas team).
Taxes (double-check the tax lines in the outsourcing contract, because you may not be responsible for paying some of the local taxes).
Management of the remote team (managing an overseas provider may add up to 10% to the final price).
Before concluding the contract, always question your potential partner about the possible hidden costs. You should obtain a very coherent picture of how much you will have to pay and for what exactly.

Language barrier

It’s no secret that effective communication is the key to successful collaboration. First and foremost, make sure the employees of your outsource web development company speak enough English to follow your requirements. They don’t have to be fluent, but if there is a communication barrier, it will be extremely hard to get the work done correctly.

Such a barrier would come from four sources: pronunciation, syntax, vocabulary, and accent. In addition, non-native speakers may tend to use the sentence structures of their native language.

To help reduce the impact of these issues, there are a few things you can do from your end to help reduce and overcome the language barrier:

Use common words. Try avoiding complex turns of phrase, specialized vocabulary, and professional jargon.
Avoid slang, idioms, and metaphors. Even if the level of English of the other person is reasonably high, they may misinterpret some notions and jokes.
During calls speak at a steady pace, and make short pauses between sentences so the other person has time to process what you are saying.

Different time zones

You may feel uncomfortable if your remote team is sleeping while you are operating at full capacity. This can be particularly inconvenient if your project requires active cooperation and constant direct communication.

The practical solution to this problem lies in the maximum utilization of “golden” overlapping hours, when both your in-house and remote teams are up and working. Even if you have only several hours a day of overlap, they may be enough to schedule meetings, review work done, and discuss further plans.

Data security

Sensitive data about your company that you transfer to your outsourcing partner could potentially be used by someone to manipulate or sabotage your business. One of your first priorities when assessing a potential partner is to find out about their approach to protecting your data. If something seems wrong with the company’s attitude to security, it probably is.

Carefully discuss the security methods of your web development outsourcing partner, and keep them accountable for sensitive data protection. Question them about any past security problems and how they dealt with them. Be sure to sign a data processing agreement with your vendor.