Startups often don’t plan their product development process meticulously as they think that everything will fall in place. But in order the things to fall in the place, one has to execute a robust plan which might be developed by the core team.

Rather going with the flow some planning is necessary because it helps to find the areas which require urgent attention. Startups always have the limitations of everything; resources, capital, talent but to succeed and to reach a certain level in spite of all hurdles we need the like-minded core team to be in place first, who can help the startup to create a credible plan. While building the plan, one has to create the blueprints of the marketing plan simultaneously, as it gives a headway in understanding the cost structure for bringing the product to the market.

Building the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is not the end of this arduous journey, but the beginning of an another tough process, i.e., go-to-market. Lots of checklist variety is available in the market, but one should create their go-to-market strategy, which has to based on the harsh realities of the capital and resources at their disposable.

Defining the value proposition for the MVP is a must along with the branding goals, as this helps to identify the market initially and create a viable marketing plan to penetrate the market. The first 1,000 or 10,000 customer acquisition should be the top priority depending on the startup’s target market.

A standard or lavish branding exercise won’t solve this, but aggravate the situation or worsen the situation. It would also create the stumbling blocks in the organic customer acquisition way. An emotional storyline, if created, it would be helpful and then it is very easy to apply an innovative methodology to acquire new customers quickly.

Today’s customer is not only quality conscious, but also weigh on the look and feel of the product. And in the age of comparison, customer’s decision pattern tends to favour on the simplicity of the product, yet they seek more relevant information from the label of the product, so product design matters.

One should not try to take the customer/partners for a ride or even think about it.

Within its budget, the startup should create a sensible plan which is more realistic in nature; that would help not to fall flat on the face. Put the core team in place should be a top priority before anything, as core team can develop your go-to-market strategy. Also bringing in a startup creative agency in their brand building process that would lower down the cost quite considerably yet at the same time give you enough freedom to alter the entire process if required.

The core team is a must, going solo may lead to the undesired outcome. If Startup is lucky, sometimes it can lead to something, but most of the time, it is spending the precious limited resources. The results gained would be of lower priority and not the desired one.