Aaqua
Case Study
Central to our approach is understanding who is having the problem and how they will benefit from the solution.
Who is having the Problem?
Keith new CTO Graham - head of procurement Tony - Engineering Director
What do we assume about them?
Start-up, pre-revenue, need to accelerate technical growth, tight control on spend, still building MVP so should probably focus on senior technical people if possible
Who will benefit from the solution?
Their primary (single) investor who is bank-rolling the start-up
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Before rushing to find a solution, pause and reflect on how much you really know about the problem.
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Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”
What is the problem about?
Getting the MVP to market before running out of funding
Is there an actual/real problem?
Yes - they have a 100 strong engineering team, so burning cash and still at product definition stage with no revenue generation
Understanding where and when the problem occurs can give us insights into the causes and triggers.
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Find proof to test how real this problem is.
Where does it occur? What is the context?
They need to prepare for a more steady-state (cost effective) engineering team once the spike of initial product development stabilises.​
What is the proof of the problem happening in a certain context or space?
A high percentage of start-ups fail and this could be down to balancing their spend in time-to-market phase against realising ROI for investors
Having gathered your insights together, test with the problem owner how important this problem is. Where does it sit in their priorities? Is it really worth solving?
Why is it worth solving? Why care about it?
Yes. We don't usually work with Start-ups and if we do this we could gain a new, and potentially longer-term client and contribute to their success. They are prepared to commit a sizeable budget across UK and SGP and FDM is keen to acquire new and diverse clients in SGP
What pain point would a solution help get rid of?
Continued high engineering costs and/or possible attrition of Engineers once the high-end innovation phase is complete
What is the most important value for the user?
consistent quality, managed growth pipeline of talent
Why is it worth our client's investment? How does it meet their business goals/KPIs?
One vendor for multi-location capability, cost effective tec team growth, option to retain