I have written about the Iteration Cycle before but it is better to explain it briefly now. The Iteration Cycle is a process comprising of six steps.
– Watch
-Ideate
-Guess
-Which
-Act
-Measure
To make this easier to remember, use an acronym. “WIGWAM”. It sounds very goofy but I assure you, it works. Here’s how each step works.
Watch what works and what doesn’t. Then, you think. What could you improve on? What are your options? After that, work out which option will help you the most. Implement your decision and see how it unfolds. If it is successful, good job! Do the iteration cycle until you are flawless. If it didn’t work out, don’t worry Do the iteration cycle again and again until you’re perfect.
There is, in fact, more than one method to the iteration cycle in business. There are hundreds of ways to do it, but I will only write about a few.
- Shadow testing
Shadow testing means selling an offer before it exists. Kind of like a beta test. Of course you have to be upfront about it to your customers that your product is still in development but other than that it’s all up to you.
What is the main purpose of shadow testing? For feedback of course!
Feedback is absolutely necessary for the iteration cycle. When you send a beta test to your prospects, you see if it has good sales or bad. If it’s n,d you can adjust the product to meet the customer’s needs. This is the beauty of the Iteration Cycle; it allows you to constantly refine and improve your product. This helps ensure customer satisfaction and the success of your product.t good, you ask for feedback so you can change.
- Minimum viable offer
Minimum Viable Offer is more or less identical to Shadow Testing. It’s more like selling a prototype. Just enough features to make a sale. Since feedback from prospective customers and actually paying customers is different, it helps you collect data from real customers as quickly as possible.
For example, if you are developing a product like a recipe subscription service, you can start by offering just the most important features like a few recipes per month and delivery, and collect feedback from customers to improve the product.
- Incremental augmentation
Once you know your Minimum Viable offer sells, you can add more features to it. This allows you to continually improve your product while ensuring that you don’t over-invest in features that customers may not value. It also enables you to capitalize on new ideas and technologies and quickly respond to customer feedback.
- Field Testing
This is vital if not absolutely necessary for improving. It applies to more than just businesses.
Let’s say you wish to become better in a language. Improving in a language is challenging if you have no one to talk to in that language. But if you are surrounded by people who actually talk in that language, you will improve quickly. This is the result of Field Testing.
Thanks for reading my blog. Maybe read more of my other blogs too? 🙂