Startup, Scaleup, Screwup.

18The Darkest Road

Manage the expectations of stakeholders with a Product Roadmap, created with experiments, outcomes, and a Rolling-Wave Planning.

 

When will there be an iOS version?”

It was probably the most frequently asked question we received when we showed our product at the big Agile2018 event in San Diego. Each time, our answer was, “We will work on iOS after we have found Product/Market Fit.” As long as customers don’t use our product often enough, it makes no sense to scale out to other platforms. Why duplicate something that’s still not good? Clearly, our potential customers didn’t see it like that. They were just eager to try our app on their favorite smartphone, which is an Android phone for some, and an iPhone for others.

Some technical readers might wonder why we didn’t use a framework that could compile to Android and iOS simultaneously. The first answer is that, as a startup, what we needed most was rapid experimentation, and you can only be fast in what you’re good at. Our team happened to have great Android developers. As long as we were still building Minimal Viable Products while seeking Product/Market Fit in the Validation stage, we considered it okay to use technologies in which we were fast and flexible. Switching technologies and rebuilding the base is a matter for the Stabilization stage—if or when we get there.

Our team did try to guess when would ...