This is my present to all daring peeps, who wrote world domination in their new year wishlist. ;)

You can use this step-by-step plan to develop any project, to clearly understand the phase you are currently on, and what tasks you should focus on. I created this plan as a part of making the roadmap for MapalaNet development. After making a more generalized version I decided to share it with you, because it might be of use for somebody.

Disclaimer

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• It isn’t advisable to use this instruction as an action plan as is, please treat it more like a template, that needs some adjustment to fit the requirements of your project.

• This plan is not some sort of business concept, or a chapter from a textbook, but is based on personal experience.

• Plan was made for use with online project, so it might be biased towards that field, and might be lacking in detail, especially for the later phases. Still, with slight adaptation it can be successfully used for a conventional online business.

• Plan does not answer the questions on what or how to do things, it is more of a checklist on the sequence that you should solve tasks and the things to focus your attention.

7 steps to world domination

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1. Idea
2. Team
3. MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
4. Market entry
5. Sustainable development model
6. Commercialization
7. Scaling

Important elaboration:

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• In real cases the phases might have a different chronological order. For example, commercialization might come right after scaling (examples: Uber, Blablacar). Use your judgement and entrepreneurial creativity;
• Earlier you join the project, higher the potential profit from participation, but the risks are also higher.

1. Idea

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What do we need, and what do we do:

1. Team, participants that have necessary experience and professional qualifications;
2. Participant’s time to work on the idea;
3. Communication between the participants.

Participation types:

1. Brainstorms;
2. Concept description;
3. Polling participation, feedback.

Comments:

This is the step that you should pass without attracting investments.

Most of the projects die at this stage, before even being born. When you have an amazing idea, you are full of energy and enthusiasm about making it into reality, but with time this enthusiasm will vanish. It is important not to get stuck at this phase, find first like minded people, that you would share your idea with, and regular interaction. This will allow you to keep your enthusiasm and move forward.

2. Building a team

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What do we need, and what do we do:

1. People who look for talent (engagers);
2. Idea, a clear vision of the project’s future (what to engage in);
3. Clear prospects and laid down terms of working in the team;
4. A list of necessary participants with required qualifications;
5. Incidental expenses (trips, meetings);
6. Spelled out shares, and responsibilities of the founders;
7. Resources to keep the team going for at least 6 months.

Participation types:

1. Join and start working for the idea;
2. Ready to join as soon as money are raised;
3. Ready to work in spare time, and join full-time after there are money for at least some minimal payment;
4. Assist with finding team members;
5. Investment for payroll creation.

What next?

If you were successful go to step 3, if not than there is something wrong with your idea. It isn’t engaging enough. Go back to step 1 and do more thinking.

Comments:

There is no such thing as an ideal recipe to form a team, it is always quite complex and big undertaking. My opinion is that to form the core team it is important, that all the key participants share common values, vision of project development, and were mainly motivated by the idea.

Risks:

1. Take too long to assemble a team, and never get to work; lose first arrangements.
2. Attract funding, and spend it somewhere wrong ;)

Addendum

In the industry of blockchain project, the market was formed in the last year in such a way, that even at this stem projects that have a clear concept, execution plan and a team, can attract significant investments.

3. MVP

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What do we need, and what do we do:

1. Concept and technical specification;
2. Team with necessary qualifications and resources for the job;
3. Resources (servers, technology, programs, etc).

Participation types:

1. Work for the idea (tokens);
2. Work for tokens + paycheck;
3. Work for paycheck (it is better not to hire people for the startup, that aren’t interested in project stake. It tells a lot about engagement and belief in your project);
4. Investments for the payroll;
5. QA (feedback).

Risks

1. Team could fall apart;
2. You could run out of resources;
3. It could be impossible to turn the idea into working technology.

Comments

The task is to create something that would be valuable to people, and they would like to start using it. Quicker and with less resources you are able to complete this phase the better. After unveiling your product you could measure the market’s reaction and not continue to live in the illusions of the coolness of your idea. And if the reaction is negative, you could change something with the feedback you get.

Adendum

To attract financing into online-startup it is usually required to pass all those stages on your own up to creation of MVP.

4. Market entry

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What do we need, and what do we do:

1. MVP;
2. Promotion strategy (Target audience, channels, etc);
3. Promotion team;
4. Support team (answering feedback from users);
5. Resources for promotion.

Participation types:

1. Bounties (incentives for promotion);
2. QA (feedback);
3. Work for tokens;
4. Work for paycheck;
5. Paycheck + tokens;
6. Investments for team + promotion;
7. Barter.

What next?

If the market rejected your product, then we have to decide where to go back: redo the MVP, find new specialists, or even revise the idea. If the product was accepted then we move to step 5.

Comments

For the full testing of your MVP you need to bring it into contact with widest possible audience. Main thing is to reach out, and then get feedback from the required target audience, and only then you can draw the conclusions and decide what to do next.

5. Creation of sustainable development model

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What do we need, and what do we do:

1. Successfully tested MVP;
2. Team;
3. Resources for further development until the project reaches self-sufficiency;
4. Concept and plan of further development.

Comments

You can reach this step and in different situations. Your main weapon is MVP, which was field tested, and proved to be needed by the market. This should give you energy to act further, as well as solid arguments for motivations of your team to continue working, and for investors to join the project. The most important thing is to understand and plan how are you going to reach monetization and project self-sufficiency phase.

6. Commercialization

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What do we need, and what do we do:

1. Reaching the critical mass of users;
2. Ideas for ways to monetize;
3. Sequential testing of the ideas;
4. Resources for stable work.

What next?

In case of failure, decide where to go back to, or create new ideas and continue testing. In case of success we go forward to 7th stage.

Comments

Even if your MVP was successful with the target market, it doesn’t mean that it would be commercially viable. To find a successful business-model, start monetizing and not harming the attractiveness of the product is not an easy task.

7. Scaling

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What do we need, and what do we do:

1. Watch the reruns of all the films starting with Phantomas, Dr. Evil, and other evil geniuses for inspiration ;)
2. MVP with a proven business-model generating profit (not necessary if you have resources for further improvement and scaling);
3. Scaling team;
4. Scaling resources;
5. Scaling strategy.

Comments:

If you’ve reached this stage I’m not the guy to give you advice))) I’ll write a new plan, once I reach this stage myself. ;)