The creation of any project is inevitably associated with risks. It practically doesn’t matter how brilliant your idea is, and there is always a risk that it will fail. Many specialists are so inspired by their work that they may not notice apparent problems. Often the failure to study the risks leads to the complete loss of the project. To avoid this, it is necessary to think over mechanisms to identify risks and find solutions to eliminate them.
As Exploding Topics statistics say, about 90% of startups fail, and of those that left, 10% of them do not survive their first year. Then we can refer to a lot of data and as a result it turns out that only 1 out of 100 actually becomes successful. For a future entrepreneur, these are quite frightening numbers. But let’s try to avoid the most common mistakes and increase the chances of your startup on the path to profit and success.
Wrong market analysis
The first thing you need to understand is how your product can be useful to the user. As experience shows, many startups fail because the market does not need this product.
To make sure that your product will be helpful, you need to answer the following questions in advance:
- What problems can the product solve?
- Who and how will benefit from it?
- What market size will the product cover?
- What direct and indirect competitors already exist?
- How much are customers willing to pay for this product?
Your product can solve a significant problem, but few people face it. It leads to the fact that the project does not pay off due to a small number of potential customers.
Setting unrealistic deadlines
The quality assurance experts from Testfort recommend before starting the development of the software to create a testing roadmap. There you can set the areas of testing required, prioritize the order and direction of tests and put deadlines for completing specific tasks and the approximate time for the project to be released.
You should not set too narrow a framework. Perhaps, you may encounter some challenges in the work process that slows down development. If you don’t release a project on time, it may raise questions from your investors and potential customers, but removing a product unfinished or testing is a ticket to nowhere. Give yourself a little extra time so that you can adequately check everything.
Not investing in human resources
To develop quality software, you need to attract real professionals. In addition, such employees need to be motivated and retained in different ways. This is a long-term investment in personnel, because at first the product may operate at a loss and you must be prepared for this. Business is made by people, and if you believe in them, it will pay off after some time.
Recruitment, especially in the IT sphere, is of great importance. The more qualified a specialist you need, the more you will have to pay him. Another important point regarding the personnel issue is team management. This position should be occupied by a responsible person with similar experience and an understanding of what needs to be done. By assembling your team in this way, literally like a puzzle, you will be able to overcome all difficulties together and successfully complete more than a dozen projects.
Lack of testing plan
The absence of a comprehensive testing plan can pose significant risks to organizations, potentially jeopardizing the entire software development lifecycle. Without paying much attention to systematic app testing methodologies, such as unit testing, integration testing, and acceptance testing, software products may become susceptible to undetected bugs and security vulnerabilities. These latent issues can lead to substantial financial losses, harm to brand reputation and as a result the possible legal liabilities.
Skipping a solid testing strategy can rack up long-term development costs and lower the quality of the software. Testing methods become critical for keeping the software reliable and the product up to date. If testing isn’t woven into the development process, developers end up wasting tons of time fixing problems that could’ve been caught way earlier.
Choosing the wrong technology
Before you start working on a project, you need to consider what technologies you will be using. Today, there are many platforms on the web that help you create any product faster and more correctly, but you need to consider how appropriate it is to use different tools in your work.
In addition, you should not use older versions of programs. There is always a chance they will not be combined with newer versions and give a decent result.
How can risks be reduced?
Risk reduction is a rather complex process that should be systemic. You will:
- Identify risks in the early stages of development;
- Communicate risks to the team and investors;
- Prioritize risks;
- Understand the reasons;
- Develop a comprehensive risk mitigation plan.
It should be understood that there are standard risks that will be fair for all projects (for example, lack of money or time) and personalized ones that depend on the specifics of the project. At the planning stage, you need to study the market, understand what problems your product may face, and only then start working. All team members must understand the likelihood of failure and be committed to avoiding such a scenario. Write down all the risks in one table and understand which of them can significantly affect your product and which ones will only spoil your mood.
The next step is to develop a comprehensive risk management plan. It should include a list of specific actions you will take to prevent the project from failing. Also, if you have the opportunity, try to get a conversation with a successful founder. Most likely, you will be able to get the most valuable information that you cannot buy for money.
