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0:55 - Do Europeans take way too long to launch?
7:00 - Always start from a problem
12:08 - What changes from MVP to the growth stage?
23:18 - The constant cycle of product development
30:59 - What's nearshoring?
Laurent Decrue is the co-founder of the moving company MOVU and the software company Holycode, and is currently also the CEO at Bexio. At Holycode, Laurent turns people's product dreams into reality, so there's no process he knows more intimately than product development. The company headquarters are in Serbia — this is called nearshoring: outsourcing your operations to another country, but one that is nearby and usually even in the same time-zone.
Is there a set framework for product development?
No: it depends on the stage. But if there's something Laurent can recommend, it's that before you start developing, you should create a business canvas. Think about what a prototype could look like, especially a UX prototype that is clickable. Next you should figure out the smallest possible version of it — something that can be cooked up in 3 weeks. Even if it works, you'll inevitably end up throwing it away because you need to build a bigger version, but having built it in the first place allows you to decide whether a bigger version is worth it.
Similarly, it's best not to invest in a crazily complex back-end architecture right away. Build something that works and have your customers test it and give you feedback — even if they do so in a simple spreadsheet.
Taking inspiration from The Lean Startup, Laurent talked about the 2 hypothesis you need to prove:
- Value hypothesis: are people willing to spend money/time interacting with your tool?
- Growth hypothesis: is it scalable? It's possible that a very good product is not actually scalable. At this stage, marketing, sales and process optimization become cruzial.
The age-old debate: Scrum or Kanban?
Laurent recommends Kanban for really creative solutions. This tool is all about making sure you don't have more than one or two tasks in each phase of the process, and it also really helps you keep focus.
On the other hand, Laurent sees the utility of Scrum for good quality, fast results.
"Don't invest in a crazily complex backend architecture before you've actually verified that this is the right architecture to build."
If you'd like to listen to our previous episode with Laurent, click here.
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