02 / Challenge
Shift from service to SaaS
The Lean Startup taught us: you start small, do things manually, measure success and automate the things that work. In reality, not all SaaS startups were born like this. Quite on the contrary, we encounter many service and consultancy-focused companies that are looking at the SaaS model in order to grow. Adding more people to your team tends to be slower (and more expensive) in the long run than selling subscriptions.
How to make the transition
Successfully transitioning into a SaaS model is easier said than done. Not only the revenue model is different, but also the skills and mindset within the organisation need to shift to a different focus. Well, we all know that with a SaaS subscription model, scaling should be easier since it won't require manual work from your team to get a new client onboard, your software will do it for you. Besides the software to build, there are a few other forces to consider within your organisation as well.
Shift to a SaaS organisation
There are many factors to consider when shifting to a SaaS model, here are just some example factors to consider.
01 / To consider
Build the right things
You’d like people to search for your offer instead of you trying to convince people that they have a problem. You would want your organisation to be product-led, which requires not only a restructuring of your sales and marketing team but also a good understanding of your target users, usually through research.
02 / To consider
Product engineering pace
You want to stay ahead of the competition and answer the client's requests. Both require a big deal of decision-making. You don’t want your product to be tailored to just one client, instead, you’d like to cover as many different use cases as possible. Therefore your product and engineering teams need to be as focused as possible and it all trickles down to good prioritisation.
03 / To consider
Your support heroes
You only make money if people are using your product. Answering support tickets, writing help articles and smoothening out the onboarding are all essential in a SaaS company. Especially in an early-stage startup, a good support team can make up for all bugs and wrong decisions you made in your product.
Still a bit lost? We can help!
We worked with a fair share of SaaS startups and know the pitfalls to avoid.
01 / Service
Research
We help to conduct or plan the research so you have the right insights to define what product to build to replace your services.
03 / Service
Prioritise
We define a prioritisation framework to ensure your time and money are well spent.
04 / Service
Build the team
We build you a product team and steer you and the management team towards sustainable growth.
Ahoy!
I'm Hannes
Captain & Design lead
If you’re drowning in client requests, complex prioritisation exercises and interface patterns, let us know. We’ll come and save your soul!