StoriesOnBoard - a story of a SaaS product from the idea till market launch

StoriesOnBoard - a story of a SaaS product from the idea till market launch

Tamás Árpád [email protected]

dsdfWho we are?

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meet Sanyi16 years in software developmentdeveloper, architect, team lead, ninja

meet Árpi16 years in software developmentdeveloper, BA, PM, Scrum Master

dsdfpre 2012 - motivations

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1. “WTF?? there must be a way of doing this better!”

2.

depending on 1-2 large customeroversized projects

never saying no“don’t ask just do it”

dsdfgoals

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1. frequent & small transactions

—> easy purchasing decisions2. global market from the start

=> steady flow of income

dsdfwhat?

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coming up with ideas is easysticking to one is much harder

when you keep getting “better and better” ideas

dsdf2012 - User story mapping tool

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we liked USM much

new niche market

just a few competitors

low entry barriers

dsdfUser Story Mapping - crash course

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product discovery & planning

user story mapping by Jeff Patton

dsdf1. Understand the problem

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Searches for a product

Places orderExamines products

Makes payment Ships Webshop

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Webshop

Browse by categories

Basic search

Place order See details Pay on delivery

Best sellers

Compare products

Pay with credit card

Domestic shipping

International shipping



Makes payment Ships

Recommendations

Remember customer

PayPal

2. Come up with solutions

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Webshop


Basic search


Best sellers

Compare products


Domestic shipping




Makes payment Ships

Recommendations

Remember customer

PayPal

3. Decide where to start

Release 1 - goal: validate assumptions about demand

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Webshop


Basic search


Best sellers

Compare products


Domestic shipping




Makes payment Ships

Recommendations

Remember customer

PayPal

Release 1 - goal: validate assumptions about demand

4. Deliver, learn & adapt

Release 2 - goal: improve purchasing experience

dsdf2012 - building framework

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behind closed doorstook long :)

“k. jó lesz!” (and it is)

CQS API

based SPA framework

dsdf2013 - feature development - joint forces

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Go live: 2013 dec

first naive plan

dsdf2014 - devmads kft - public beta

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establishing devmads kft

joining program

moving into Ms Azure

landing page, blog

launching public beta

dsdfmarketing

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google adwords - 2 months 200kHUF

SEO backlinks, blog comments,

newsletters, twitter

goal: 1st place on google search

Product Hunt!

target audience: experienced user story mappers

10k visitors during 1 weekprev week: 260

no. of unique users / month

43k registered users

dsdf2015- … - feedback channels, feature dev

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feedback through UserVoiceadding most requested features:

import-export, public mapsJira, Trello, Slack integrations

support through UV, email, Skype

meet Ágiour support ninja

dsdf… -2016 may - transitioning to a paid service

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VAT?? Invoicing??? WTF???took 4 months to figure out

Payment infrastructure:StoriesOnBoard - Taxamo -

Braintree - Billzone

monthly-annual subscriptions, recurring charges

dsdfpricing battle

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had literally 19 different pricing modelsmade tons of statistics

had been arguing for monthsfinally we decided on this

published and got this:

dsdfpricing v2

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dsdf2016 june - launch

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initial target: 20k MRR to keep StoriesOnBoard sustainablereached only 10k till the end of trials :( but kept going up! :)

dsdfsome unexpected things

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• higher sales activity needed• resellers• slower conversion, slower decisions• large enterprises• security and maturity certifications

dsdfnumbers

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investment: 4000 hours of work, 3MHUF cashoutcome so far:

• 750 subscriptions, 20% annual• 40% US, 40% EU• 4200 subscribed users• 34k USD MRR

dsdf2017

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• office• continue development of StoriesOnBoard• develop marketing, sales• explore new target groups• hire developers, sales• start working on new products

dsdftakeaways

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• delivering quality pays off

• think global act global

• scaling is not tied to number of employees in this model

StoriesOnBoard - a story of a SaaS product from the idea till market launch

Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Transcript of StoriesOnBoard - a story of a SaaS product from the idea till market launch