How to Build High-Quality Products at Startup Speed: A Comprehensive Guide

In less than four months, our client's idea went from concept to acquiring their first B2B client. Like many startups, they had a question: “How do we swiftly demonstrate a functional product to our customers without compromising quality?”

Our team has successfully built over four major projects like this in the past 1.5 years. Let's be honest: moving fast without an established process is tough. In this article, we will share three fundamental blocks for building a product. We hope these insights will inspire and help kickstart your startup journey.

Additionally, we will provide our best practices for an efficient development process that leads to successful partnerships and positive outcomes for everyone involved: founders, technical teams, and users.

Part I. Vision

As a startup owner, you're filled with excitement about the potential of your idea. This enthusiasm pushes you to jump right into building and introducing your product new to the market.

But let's keep this spark and start by doing market research and talking to potential users first. You need to validate your idea and ensure there is a demand for it.

This process should not take too long, as we're in a startup reality. However, it's important to have a clear vision of what problem your product solves and who your target audience is.

In this section, we'll spotlight key aspects of the vision-refining process.

1. Team collaboration

Having open communication between founders and technical teams is vital. Founders need to communicate their vision and goals for the product, while developers can provide valuable insights on what features are feasible and how long they may take to develop.

We conduct discovery workshops to brainstorm, exchange perspectives, and delve deeper into the concept. This collaborative process helps shape your product's vision as a technological solution.

2. Positioning

Even at the beginning of the path, when you haven't tested the product itself, positioning is something that helps to speed up time for development 3-4 times. How?

Positioning helps you stay focused on your differentiated value and prioritize what to incorporate into your MVP.

"The perfect positioning" is a rare occasion before the product hits the market. April Dunford, a marketing expert who works with positioning for tech companies, recommends using the positioning thesis. It serves as a framework to address several critical questions:

• Who do we think we compete with?
• What sets my product apart from the rest?
• What unique value can I bring to the market?
• Who are the people that I believe will love it?

It is used more for internal purposes: to test assumptions and find out where we can be wrong. There always can be a customer segment that we never thought of or a functionality that wasn't planned.

But the thesis helps you get off the ground, and it evolves into a statement when your proposition finally aligns with the market demand.

3. Pre-sales: idea as a business

"Should I go ahead and build this product?" "Is there a market demand?" and "Can I build a business around this product?" - these are all questions that might still cross your mind, and they're valid.

Pre-sales is a great method to find out if your idea can turn into a successful business. The goal is to share your vision with your target audience to see if there’s enough demand.

According to McKinsey research, pre-sales can boost win rates to 40–50% for new businesses and 80–90% for existing ones, compared to average rates.

Here's why pre-sales are so useful:

• You get real customer feedback. This tells you if people like your idea.
• You earn some money upfront. This cash can help you with production.
• It reduces risk. You know there's a demand before you invest in a product.

You can test your positioning, unique benefits, and pricing model by creating a landing page, running an ad campaign, or even using networking and social media connections.

It can result in a base of leads, early adopters, and valuable user feedback.

And you might be thinking, "But wait, we have nothing to pre-sell". Well, let's talk about that.

Part II. Strategy

Every product enters a vibrant market. There is an existing competition, customer expectations, and hidden challenges.

The purpose of the strategy is to minimize risks and maximize opportunities. Your idea may be fully formed or be just an outline. However, without a well-defined execution plan, it becomes difficult to convince investors of its value.

A strategy helps you stay focused and on track, while also providing a roadmap to follow. Here are a few rules that make our strategy quick and effective to put into action.

1. Lean Startup methodology

It is important to set realistic goals. If you want to go far and fast, it is better to start small.

The Lean Startup method says that there is no need to spend lots of time and money on a final, polished version, as this version won't be the final one. It is crucial to achieve customer feedback as fast as possible to continue refining the product.

An entrepreneur's aim isn't only to build a product, but to solve a problem. Making a product is just one way to achieve that goal.

Most startups and new products rely on MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Aaron Dinin shares the idea that an MVP is not just about building the simplest possible version of a product. It's about taking minimal time and effort to start to learn from MVP.

2. Start validation before development

Our team usually works on a functional prototype before an MVP. This is a cost-efficient method to present the product's concept and validate the most critical hypotheses.

Creating a prototype like this usually takes us around a few weeks. We don't have to do any actual development; we can create it while we're in the discovery phase.

Once we've got a functional UI prototype, the idea owner already has a demo version of the product that can be shown to customers. It's time to do customer interviews, present the product to potential investors, gather all the feedback, and process the information.

This knowledge guides the following decision-making for both the client and the technical team. It helps to address key questions:

• What areas should we prioritize when developing an MVP?
• Are we on the right track with our product-market fit, or do we need to pivot and adjust our strategy?
• How do we strategically plan our future iterations?

This is a moment to start pre-selling, check if there's market demand, and do customer discovery to find out the pain points and motivations of customers for future product development.

3. Prioritize and focus on essential features

When you're launching an MVP, make sure to prioritize the key features that support your unique value proposition. Various techniques like the Value & Effort matrix, MoSCoW method, or Kano model can help you decide what to focus on and organize your development process into efficient cycles.

If you're planning to handle the implementation on your own, we recommend putting your focus on:

• Core functionalities that solve the main problem.
• High-demand features that users are explicitly asking for.
• Quick wins that can be implemented fast and have a significant impact.

An MVP focuses on solving a single problem. It usually has basic functions and 2-3 key features.

Part III. Tactics: how to build products faster

Let's dive right into development! Our goal here is to create a product in a fast and efficient way, without compromising on quality.

To speed up the development process, you have options like hiring developers (freelancers, in-house, or outsourcing). Alternatively, you can leverage tools specifically designed to assist non-technical founders.

In this section, we'll share tactics to help you quickly and efficiently build your MVP.

1. Low-code / no-code technologies

The name itself suggests that you don't need to code much. These tools are user-friendly and empower non-tech founders to build their first product versions.

This approach saves time and money, which makes it a top choice for technical teams that work with startups. Plus, it's a great way to test the waters before committing to complex development.

From the other side, these platforms have limitations. You won't have complete control over the code, but you can still make some tweaks and customize your software to a certain extent. Having some programming knowledge helps with that.

Choosing the right tool is key. Our team thoroughly analyzes all project requirements before making a decision, taking future scalability into account. Each platform has unique features, so if you're working on your own, don't forget to do a platform audit and see how future-proof it is.

2. Pre-build solutions and third-party integrations

Whenever possible, integrate existing tools, platforms, and services to avoid reinventing the wheel. This can significantly reduce development time for functionalities like payments, authentication, and data analytics.

Popular use cases for API integrations:

• Payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, or Braintree for online transactions.
• CRMs and ticketing systems like Zoho, Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zendesk to streamline customer data management.
• Workflow automation tools like Zapier to automate tasks and streamline processes.
• E-commerce APIs for inventory management, order processing, and product search capabilities.
• Chat systems like LiveChat, Intercom, or Zendesk Chat to improve customer communication and support.
• APIs from popular travel and booking services to provide real-time availability and booking options for customers.

3. Iterative development

Sometimes startup founders come to us with a key goal: release the MVP out ASAP. Iterative development is the way we make that happen and keep the product moving forward.

Iterative development is structured in cycles, including planning, development, testing, and reviewing. Each iteration produces a new version of the program, continuing until the final result is achieved. This approach enables us to:

• gather feedback after each iteration and learn faster;
• make improvements a continuous process based on relevant user data;
• reduce risks and be flexible to keep up with the market.

4. Use existing frameworks and libraries

These tools offer ready-made components and functionalities that can be effortlessly integrated into your product, saving time on coding from scratch.

But don't forget to consider your project's specific needs before choosing a framework or library. It's also a good idea to regularly update and maintain these tools to ensure they keep working smoothly and stay secure.

5. Development practices

When it comes to quality, the approach is vital in creating software that can be easily maintained and scaled for the future. Here are some important methods to consider:

• Modular Design: Breaking down a system into smaller, manageable parts makes it easier to understand, develop, and test.
• Code Reusability: Writing code that can be used across different parts of the application saves time and effort.
• Readability: Code should be easy to read for anyone who may work on it in the future, which includes using naming conventions and writing clear comments.
• Version Control: Using tools like Git helps keep track of changes and enables collaboration among developers.
• Automated Testing: When the team implements tests that run automatically, it ensures that new changes don't break existing functionality.
• Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Automating the build and deployment process speeds up the release cycle and reduces human error.
• Documentation: Maintaining good documentation is crucial for making technical aspects clear for different team members, onboarding new people, and for reference purposes.

6. Prioritize communication and collaboration

Ensure that everyone is on the same page, because this is how encourages sharing of ideas, and helps resolve issues early.

Here are some rules for effective communication and collaboration that we use:

• daily team stand-ups to keep everyone updated
• weekly or bi-weekly meetings with clients to discuss progress, updates, and gather feedback
• agile project management tools to track our progress
• clear communication channels for open communication and constant connection between our project team, clients, and key stakeholders.

Conclusion

A well-planned and executed launch plan sets the stage for a successful product that meets customer needs, drives engagement, and creates a loyal user base. We're eager to offer our skills in building products from scratch and handle technical along the way.

If you decide to work on your own, there are still plenty of possibilities to validate your idea and leverage pre-built solutions. Use these strategies to effectively prioritize tasks and ensure you're directing your resources towards the right things.