2013 Roadmap
We had an informal meeting today to begin the process of mapping out the work for 2013. In this work we've referenced the incredibly insightful Startup Genome infographic, which breaks the lifecycle of a startup into 4 phases: 1. Discovery, 2. Validation, 3. Efficiency, and 4. Scale.
For our purposes we're calling Phase 2 "Engagement"; the names aren't really important, they are just buckets to help us think about priorities and dependencies.
We started by throwing up a noncomprehensive list of big ticket work items, divided into 'App' and 'Org', i.e., 'software development' and 'everything else'. From the conversation today it seems we are in the middle of phase 2.
Something like this (in rough chronological order):
Engagement
App
- new group wizard
- search
- delete discussion
- admin panel
- in-app support
- contribute page
- metrics (ongoing)
Org
- apprenticeship scheme
- payroll/invoicing/CRM system
- communications strategy
- revenue plan (grants, contributions, social loans, fluid equity/investment model)
- business model update
- constitution/legal
- organisational structure: recruitment etc
- User growth strategy/process
Efficiency
App
- UI upgrade: everything ajax, responsive, api, restructure of existing pages
- multi-proposal feature
- automated payment system
- localisation
Org
- new user strategy
- community management
- facilitation/project management
Scale
App
- mobile apps
- plugin architecture
- performance
Org
- localisation
- domains
- copyright
This list is not comprehensive; it may be useful to continue to add to it to build a high-level roadmap.
changing the name to 'engagement' is perhaps 'just a name' but I imagine - if you subscribe to the startup genome research (which does seem pretty solid) that it's pretty important not to forget that the focus at this stage is on a discovery / learning goal - ie validating / finding out who is interested in your product and learning from that - rather than a push goal - getting the word out to the people you know are there.
There is still plenty of room for learning at this stage.
That said I think the concept that things are probably a bit app (aka development) rather than org (aka business) heavy at this stage may well be a strong / useful takeaway.
Without being distracted by the language, engagement is a subset of validation. I am feeling that our internal systems and structures and work processes are needing attention, and these are like an ongoing category that runs underneath the stages described above
For me the obvious take-out from the meeting was that we have an urgent need to commit some resources and focus to the Org side. The 'Engagement' work for the App is nearly complete - the next UI overhaul can be put off till the next phase.