Launching a new SaaS product – Way We Do
February 27th, 2013Last week Dan and I soft launched our latest SaaS product “Way We Do”. No big fan fare or speeches, although we did buy a bottle of bubbly to celebrate and acknowledge the hard work we have put into this new product. The good news is that we have a few customers already trialling Way We Do, providing positive feedback and ideas for future development.
Way We Do was an inkling of an idea when we enrolled in a Turn Key Program at the National College of Business (a school for business owners). Although the course material was great, we discovered that the tools available to help business owners to create operations manuals felt like antiquated software platforms. The software was to be installed on one PC only, it wasn’t in the cloud and was using out dated design and technology. Additionally, this software was not cheap, costing small business owners a large upfront fee which was prohibitive for many participants in the course.
Planning, Prototypes and Customer Validation
So, we set out to transform small businesses and help them to behave like big businesses with the support of a customised Operations Manual. We spent approximately 2 months planning the software and creating a prototype.
Before developing the Way We Do platform, we wanted to be sure that we had validated the concept with real business owners. We approached a number of small business owners and consultants to get their feedback and they loved the idea.
The Way We Do solution was developed to allow businesses to:
- Place their team’s work instructions into the cloud, so that they can access it from any location.
- Purchase individual pre-written procedures and policies to reduce the time involved with writing them.
- Allow procedures to be visual with the use of videos, photos and images.
- Create organisation charts so the team can understand communication lines.
Why do all of this? As we know, successful entrepreneurs and business owners who create a repeatable and scalable business model often document their businesses. They move their vision of the business from their head into a documented Operations Manual, they test the systems created and train others to implement them.
Developing the Way We Do Solution
Dan was unavailable to develop the Way We Do platform full-time and since we were self funding the project, we decided to look abroad to lower costs. Outsourcing software development is not an easy task. Our plan was to hire a development company, rather than an individual directly so the project was completely managed for us.
Spurtree Technologies in India was selected, which was a good choice, although there were a few hiccups along the way. Their account management, service and professionalism was superior to many organisations we have had contact with in Australia and New Zealand.
Dan who is a highly experienced technical lead and developer has high standards regarding code structure and web standards to ensure that a robust, scalable solution was developed. Reducing technical debt from the outset helps to create a product that can scale quickly in the future.
Despite selecting a good development team, the code was not at a level that we required so after several conversations with Spurtree, Dan decided to guide and manage a single developer directly from their company. Spurtree conducted themselves professionally and were genuinely interested in seeing the project succeed.
Design and the “Right Bros”
Writing procedure documents can often be seen as a boring, tedious task so when we designed Way We Do, we wanted it to be fun and upbeat. We wanted small business owners to realise that they could create a unique business and that implementing systems and documenting it within an Operations Manual, is the basis of a successful enterprise.
We came across Fairhead Creative, owned by Adam Fairhead in the US and loved the illustrative designs that he produces. One of our goals was to create a mascot to represent Way We Do and so the “Right Bros” were born. Based upon real life entrepreneurs, our “Right Bros” were centred on the famous “Wright Brothers” who were inventors, pilots, manufacturers, publishers, trainers and retailers. These chaps were highly entrepreneurial!
Along with creating our beloved mascots, Fairhead Creative designed the logo for Way We Do. It reminds us of car emblems such as Bentley Motors, portraying distinction and class. My vision is to one day present gold or silver Way We Do pins to those business owners that build successful organisations using our platform and saying “now you have your wings”.
Fairhead Creative designed the marketing site incorporating these new brand elements. Although we had tested the prototype of the Way We Do application with customers, we didn’t do any testing of the marketing website design. Since the marketing site had been completed several months before the application was ready for launch, in hindsight, we should have started testing interactions and conversion rates as early as possible.
We’re currently testing the marketing site which is located at www.waywedo.com, so I aim to share the results in another blog post down the track.
The Product Development Journey
Creating any product or service is a journey of which there will be highs and lows. Resilience and perseverance are key characteristics to keep pushing through the “are we ever going to get there” moments.
One lesson that I have learnt during this particular product development round is that we should have been out selling while we were developing the product and is something that we will certainly do more of in future products.
I look forward to sharing both the successes and challenges that we experience along the way, so that others can learn from what we do well and not so well. Of course we want to minimise the latter!
Jacqui Jones
Managing Director
Keyword Intent Pty Ltd