Mario spoke about Software Development at ZICER Startup Factory
Every year Zagreb Innovation Centre has their acceleration program called Startup Factory. Mario Mucalo from Intellegens is usually a mentor helping startups with software development (and product and business development in general). This year Mario did a lecture about software development in the startup world for the attendees of the program.
Ask a lot of questions
Mario discussed a fact we at Intellegens stress a lot - software development is much more than just writing the code. It includes understanding what we are developing, who for, what value will that bring etc. Mario’s first part of the lecture was dedicated to questions each startup should ask themselves and their clients to understand both what it is they’re doing and what it is they need to do from that point on.
Mario’s take is that, whenever software development is discussed, you need to know:
Who you’re developing for (who will be your users and who will gain value from the project!)
What is the one core problem your solution is solving
What is the value the solution is going to bring
How have people solved that problem until now (both the good and bad sides of it)
And many others. This is the basics you need to understand when embarking on a software development project.
Develop as little as you can only when you must
In a startup world you’re often working with two premises:
You’re still not sure of your product-market fit and are exploring.
You don’t have a lot of budget.
These two are, of course, a bit contradictory - and this is where the fun of being in a startup lies. Finding ways to validate your ideas against the market while spending as little budget as possible. Mario’s advice was to develop as little as possible (ideally nothing!) to validate your ideas! If not nothing, then try and get away with a clickable demo in e.g. Figma or something.
If you do end up needing to build something, build an MVP. But MVP with the fewest features possible, the bare minimum you need to solve the core problem. (Yes, the core problem you defined while asking the questions we earlier discussed!). In B2B world the MVP is often enough. In B2C world it might need to be switched for MLP - minimum lovable product… but this is a whole new can of worms.
Only after the product-market fit is confirmed should you actually build the whole software solution.
Important parts of software development
Next, Mario covered important parts of software development:
Gathering user / client / stakeholder requirements
Design (UX and UI)
Development
Infrastructure
Documentation
Support
With over 20 years experience in software development Mario brought to the table examples from Intellegens as well as from his earlier experiences with Toptal and Lemax.
QA and beer
The QA section was unofficially held in Burger bar Mrav just outside of ZICER. Best discussions and most creative ideas are born in a casual environment over a beer and this was no exception. Mario was happy to be a part of a group discussing the program, ideas, sharing helpful advice to one another… It is a great experience and definitely a great story to have once one of these startups becomes the next unicorn.
