The go-to-market strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall vision. It is most suitable for businesses seeking to:
• Launch a new product in an existing market
• Expand a current product to a new market
• Take a new product into a new market
If you’re a tech startup planning any of the above, it is worth considering involving a stand-in CTO in your product development process. They would be able to offer guidance due to their expertise in technology, software, information, and infrastructure. This helps you ensure that your digital products solve the right problems early on.
In product development, here are four areas a stand-in CTO can be of help in:
Product Management
A CTO manages the flow of work within the engineering team and is often the de-facto technical project manager. They either stand in as the product manager or take an active role in laying out the product planning process.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Creating the first iteration of a startup’s product requires careful planning. This can be a web app, mobile app, desktop software, or desktop hardware. Being clear about the core set of the product is very important – what is this product being used for that ensures users continue to use it? This is different from extra features, such as reducing fatigue or the number steps it takes to go from one action to another.
Planning and Development
What counts as a metric of success for a product? Digital products, such as apps, go through different cycles. The first of which is rarely perfect, and rarely solves major pain points that users face.
After creating the MVP, is there a plan for the next iterations of the app? At every step, do you have a purpose for building each feature? Are you able to manage your expectations of the final outcome? Are there resources to continue developing the product?
Long-term Growth
Once your digital product has hit a specific metric, what are your plans for growth? Say for example, you have 300 million followers and that’s your metric for success. How do you continue to grow from there?
When growing exponentially is no longer possible, how do you optimize? Where do you optimize? Examples include optimizing revenue, reducing churn, introducing a feature to monetize, and so on. Operating at different cycles requires different strategies.
Do you really need a stand-in CTO?
Creating, launching, and growing digital products is rarely a one-and-done deal. It requires careful planning and expertise. Without an in-house expert, it is well worth considering bringing a stand-in CTO in for guidance and advice.
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