The GEM Framework: How to Prioritize What Matters Most to Your Venture
As ventures grow, product strategy and prioritization can help teams to maintain focus. However, misalignment happens often and can destroy a startup. According to Gibson Biddle, former vice president of production for Netflix, one of the biggest causes is differing opinions on whether teams should focus on growth, engagement, or monetization. In this City University […]
Chickens, Eggs, and the Two-Sided Marketplace
You have heard about, and likely used, two-sided marketplaces already. Companies like Visa, eBay, Airbnb, Uber, and Tinder are all two-sided marketplace businesses that have become incredibly successful. And these kinds of marketplace businesses show no signs of diminishing. According to a Coresight Research report, the income of these kinds of platforms will double by […]
Envision It — 4 Steps to Validating Good Business Ideas
When starting your venture, envisioning your idea is the first step in developing a business. Believe it or not, many founders don’t take the time to think about modeling the potential outcomes first — it’s more fun to build the product right away. However, before jumping in head first, it’s essential to understand what it […]
Vitamin vs. Aspirin: What Problem Is Your Venture Solving?
Is your product or service a “vitamin” or an “aspirin?” That is, does your product or service resolve an immediate pain point? Or does it increase performance in a way that may be difficult to see quickly? Essentially, what problem are you solving and how? In this City University session, Josh and Kyle from City […]
Building a World-Class Software Project Team in an Unstable Talent Market
Trends of Staffing in Software At City Innovations, we are constantly trying to refine our process for the better of our customers. These process refinements range from kickoff to closeout on our projects — and some even outside of our project process like staffing. Historically, software development teams have largely adopted an idealistic “Stable World” […]
Validating Your Ideas Through Minimal Viable Products — Tips and Advice You Need to Know
Part of validating your idea for product-market fit is running your idea through a minimum viable product (MVP). What is a minimum viable product? How do you build one? What can you expect? This article outlines the top questions we hear about MVPs and tips on how to ensure that your idea gets to product-market […]
The Product Validation Funnel Makes Lean Startup Methodology a Step-By-Step Process
When most of us have a great idea, we often fall victim to jumping right into imagining the end product. We get it — it’s hard not to. So many exciting possibilities from what the logo should look like to the user experience to the sound the button will make. We’ve been there many times […]
What is a Venture Studio?
Have you ever had an idea that you just knew was going to be the next best thing? We know that feeling — Equal parts excitement and fear. We know this because we have been there before, many times. And we know that while you tell others about your vision and how you are confident […]
What Is A Workshop? And Why Do I Need One?
What is a Workshop Episode Summary I’m thinking Spring today, I don’t know about you guys. It’s sunny and all the snow is melting and I’m here for it. I’m also here for this next episode of AAI which is all about workshops. What is a workshop? How can they help us deduce the product […]
What is the True Cost of Software Development?
Episode Summary We build software. Great, so what is the actual cost of software development? There are plenty of reasons you may want to build custom software, but you probably have some questions about how much money you’re going to have to throw in to get exactly what you want. We go through how we […]