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What to do if running out of money?

Last post 05:10 pm April 12, 2022 by Molly Chopps
7 replies
12:35 pm April 20, 2020

Hello,

If you have a bunch of great ideas for your new product but you are running out of money for investing, what is the most clever idea?.

Thanks!


12:39 pm April 20, 2020

@Miguel A. Fernandez, Pursue only those outcomes that would generate the most value with the available budget. Consider if all great ideas would really generate value.


05:54 pm April 20, 2020

If you have a bunch of great ideas for your new product but you are running out of money for investing, what is the most clever idea?.

Why not run the smallest, quickest, and cheapest test you can for each hypothesis, using cohorts of real customers?


08:55 pm April 20, 2020

In the short term, I would prioritize the work that is more valuable in an attempt to get money to fund other efforts. in parallel with the product development aspect, you can look outside of the Scrum framework to how you are positioning your product in the market and selling it.

In the longer run, though, I'd be curious as to how you ended up in this position if you were working on the most important, valuable work, getting feedback from stakeholders at regular intervals, and adapting your work based on that feedback.


10:27 pm April 20, 2020

In addition to the others, run every Sprint as if it is your last. Live like an entrepreneur who lives Sprint to Sprint, hoping for more VC. Deliver to build trust. And if you have something your customer wants to pay for, focus there first. 

Regardless, in the world of complexity and uncertainty, shouldn't this be the way your work anyway?


01:32 am April 21, 2020

What's most valuable to your customer today?


01:09 pm April 21, 2020

^^ What Chris said.

It's all about the value! Having said that, running out of money isn't a passive situation. Either:

a) the person providing you money doesn't want to extend the budget because they don't believe your product can offer anymore value

OR

b) they love your product and value add but actually just don't have anymore money and need to prioritise other work.

 

I much prefer the first situation as you can change it. Engage the budget holder at a Sprint Review perhaps? Get them involved with the product stakeholders? Make them see the ROI possible on your ideas to see if you can pick their pockets.


09:42 am April 12, 2022

just work


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