How we prepared an US startup for a crowdfunding campaign with Discovery Workshop

Introduction

It's a story of an early-stage media startup connecting authors and writers. They need to learn, how to strategize product development and prioritize features for a perfect product-market fit.

Through a discovery workshop with Brainhub experts, they were able to validate the product concept and plan key development milestones.

I considered a lot of developers before choosing to contact Brainhub. The reason I reached out to them came down to track record and communication. They’ve worked with some great, successful companies already, so I was confident that I would be in good hands.
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Brian Palmer, CEO & Founder at Scribi

Challenge

Evaluating 3-years-worth of business planning in less than a day, and estimating viable product development pipeline.

Solution

Intense Discovery Workshop that reverified the purpose of Scribi’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign and product development plans.

To help Scribi’s founder define a cohesive vision and choose the right growth path we made use of business-tested tools and methods.

As a result, Scribi Writer’s Studio has become much more focused.

Thanks to the workshop, the founder became ensured that it was feasible to run a thoughtful crowdfunding campaign.

They have taken the time to really understand what Scribi Writer’s Studio is for, what problems it solves and why it’s a good solution, and even helped me sharpen my vision of what it needs to be. I’m very happy to be working with Brainhub, and I think we’ll have a fantastic relationship throughout this project.

Brian Palmer, CEO & Founder at Scribi

Process

Unveiling users needs

To get a deep understanding of Scribi’s purpose we started with creating a Product Vision Board.

This tool allowed both the client and us to rediscover who the product users are, what they need, and how the proposed application could address them.

Evaluating solutions

Having a grip on what users expect, we could move to the brainstorming session and evaluating fitting solutions. SWOT Analysis helped both Scribi and us to define which features from the list were the most crucial.

Mapping user journeys

Finally, together with the client, we used User Story Mapping to group chosen features into user tasks, activities, and paths. We then picked which of them should be implemented in the MVP, and to what extent.

Estimating product pipeline

With this couple of steps, the client could finally come to know the realistic estimates of how much certain features would cost and how much time is needed to build the product.

Scribi used this information to create a crowdfunding campaign plan and set different tiers of features that were going to be added based on the amount raised.

Crowdfunding campaign support

At this point, Scribi’s founder was equipped and ready to conduct business and product development in the Agile way. Having the next steps planned, we provided the client with promo materials and suggestions for the crowdfunding campaign.

Results

After our workshop, Scribi’s team moved to the execution of the conceived crowdfunding plan and began a long journey to creating the dream-come-through platform for writers.

It was a pleasure for us to work with Scribi Writers Studio, and we root for this unique startup’s success.

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