Awaludin Zakaria, CEO and Co-Founder of PT Solusi Kampus Indonesia, also known as eCampuz, provided mentorship to the participants of the Innovative Academy incubation program on the topic of “Product Development.” eCampuz is a digitalization service that supports the main functions of educational institutions to produce outstanding graduates and provide quality education.
During the fourth incubation session at the EDS UGM Building on March 25th, Awaludin discussed what is needed in the development of a product, what should be eliminated from the product development process, and the potential risks that startup founders may encounter while developing their products. Awaludin also emphasized the importance of creating a unique product that offers value not possessed by competitors, necessitating a strategy to create that value.
“The focus of product development should align with the needs and customer jobs or desires that serve as its main vision. Therefore, in the context of a project, clarification is necessary to determine the project’s orientation, which is compiled in user requirements. User requirements contain the needs desired by the project owner (in this case, the startup founders). From the user requirements, prioritization is needed through grouping urgent features based on the consideration of gain or pain, in order to determine the risks and benefits of implementing those features. These features are then developed in the product development phase, which consists of the Design, Test, and Repeat stages, repeating until the product meets the Minimum Viable Product (MVP),” he stated.
After this meeting, participants are expected to determine how their products will be developed and identify the value of their products, enabling them to grow and compete with their competitors.