In developing and commercializing software to manage climbing walls, I’ve read and skimmed a number of books about technology commercialization and software startups. While I’ll probably use insights from each of these resources along the way, I plan to structure most of my activities around a set of processes formalized by Vijay Jolly in the book Commercializing New Technologies.
In the book, Jolly lays out nine phases that any technology commercialization venture needs to pass through in order to be successful. I plan to do a series on each phase over the next month or so, but in the meantime I’d like to focus on the work I’ll be completing during each of three phases:
-
Incubating
- Create a survey to determine potential features of software
- Review CWA Guidelines to determine essential features of software
- Perform market research so I can create a business plan
-
Mobilizing Resources for Demonstration
- Contact other sites and participants about surveys
- Administer surveys
- Recruit others to focus groups and beta testing (I am here!)
-
Demonstrating
- Create software requirements and development plan
- Iterate and release a build of the software
- Conduct beta testing, incorporate feedback into another iteration
Of course, the tasks above are just an overview of what I’ll be doing during each phase (incidentally, the three phases above represent phases four through six of the overall process) — and they’ll probably make more sense after I explain the entire commercialization process.
