POC is the New MVP: Part 2

If you’ve read POC is the new MVP part 1, you already know that POC might be the way to go in place of MVP in the blockchain market, and what defines it.

Picking up where we left off:

What are the core criteria for a POC?

• takes up to, MAXIMUM OF, 1 week (and that’s for POC beginners!)
• clearly defined and outline criterias for success
• an evaluation piece of work (process feedback is of utmost importance)
• a proposal for how to move forward, should the POC prove successful.

Let’s outlay some general methodology to a POC procedure - the course:

• Initiate : Sit down with the team, analyse POC objectives, and draw a thin-air version of a business proposal from templated canvas - output document should contain some of the following headings:

  • POC Objectives
  • POC Expected results
  • POC Stakeholders and reviewers
  • POC Perimeters (target, tools, scope, research data necessary, time to process).
    

• Research: Search the market for, and gather all, material necessary for raw implementation. Note:

  1. It doesn’t have to be final, just good enough tooling
  2. Ideally with repetitions, a lot of the dev/prod tooling and pipeline will become familial, and plug-and-play, where you can solely focus on the core proposition.
     

• Race: Time to make it happen - this is where you run with the core dev/market team.

• Analysis: Breathe, evaluate the process journey, analyse process output vs early naive expectations.

• Conclusion: This is were you take a decision (eg. is it feasible, do time and effort justify the potential revenue streams?) etc.
  ** If ** (concretion | adoption): then iterate.
  ** Else ** (negation): move on to the next idea.

How about a simple practical case?

Near the end of 2021, we partnered with an entrepreneur to build an apparel-NFT-print company that seeks to allow any crypto-lover to display their ownership of unique artwork in social settings. FYI our sister company Whitesmith runs the Web2.0 customer facing application development, while we at Blocksmith enable the Web3.0 production capabilities.

The main idea was to connect customers’ wallets, retrieve all current/owned NFTs, and ship to partner industries. Mind you, at the time, the NFT market was booming, but little to no NFT-processing APIs were yet available. The POC we had set to produce: the gathering of user owned NFT(s). The only way to do so: using standard web3 libraries.

We created scripts to gather user past/present NFT belongings, ie. effectively a full blockchain explorer for a target address, printed its NFT list, downloaded full res, worked out resolutions (NOT SIMPLE in early markets with no standard), process payment, and ship to the manufacturer. The initial explorer POC was executed in a few days, and it worked brilliantly. From there, we were able to help our partners secure core funding and see product launch. Now, the entrepreneur’s original idea is a thriving business.

Note that just a few months later, the Alchemy team was to launch its NFT API toolkit in beta version. Then OpenSea ran the API race too shortly after, which allowed developers to simply provide an address and receive all its owned NFTs. And more of this kind of toolkit became available to the public. Hopefully this showcases what we mean by “race in the crypto-space”, “first-to-market”, or “build and publish it before it’s too late”?

What about the results for this early-day raw blockchain explorer? Well, we put a flag on the moon for the business. Several months later, the Alchemy NFT API is still one of the most widely used solutions for development teams to interact with the NFT market, and NFTees is THE platform where to print your crypto wearables. We mentioned earlier that PoC is all about understanding, measuring, mitigating, and ideally eliminating risk factors. In an ideal world, the PoC will prove that the technological risks or the viability risks are not really a risk at all. In that case, you can continue to the next steps in the product development cycle, stabilise project procedures, run and/or reinforce industrialisation, and secure market ownership.

Keep in mind – when working with disruptive innovations, we will always be at the leading edge of technology. Sometimes (dare to say often) the ideas are a step ahead of what is called “project-scoped viable achievables”. Your goal, as a project lead, is to find the equilibrium between market-production and research in the space.