BarCamp Perth 2008 - Real Options in Development

Slide 1: BarCamp Perth 10 May 2008 Real Options in Development By Marc Lehmann | Director/Founder

Slide 2: About Saasu The web finance engine.

Slide 3: Real Options The right, but not the obligation, to undertake some business decision, typically the option to make a capital investment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_options_analysis

Slide 4: Crazy Person Be a crazy inventor, there's not enough time to be any other way.

Slide 5: Inventions Inventions are cheap real options. Prototyping & Trials.

Slide 6: Strange(ness) Strange is good. Strange is a real option that has no known upside but quite often the cost is well known.

Slide 7: Strange Attractors The option management has to mix odd skills in development, architecture or business models can cause unexpected results.

Slide 8: Features The choice, decision, or system that choses the feature set holds a real option. Is is mart enough to know what to exercise and what not to?

Slide 9: Abstain Some real options are better not exercised such as the choice of brand early in a product lifecycle. You give up the real options to act on customer feedback and test brands in smaller markets first.

Slide 10: What Floats Exploit your real options. Throw stuff in the river to see what floats. Try stuff on. Try stuff out.

Slide 11: Organic Engineering Nature buys lots and lots of options when it produces a multiplicity of offspring. Nature has engineered itself to ensure it has as many options up its sleeve as possible - for survival.

Slide 12: Organic Probability Nature creates many random variations and some variations survive an prosper. Others fade and die. Nature is the original Venture Capitalist.

Slide 13: Option = Choice 1. Create 1 large feature over a year 2. Create 10 small features over a year and terminate what doesn't work 2 trumps 1 every time 2 has natural selection

Slide 14: Maths Let the maths decide. Emotive, personal, instinctive has its place but as portfolio management shows, very few are good at getting it right this way.

Slide 15: Brand Options When building product or thematic brands below you main brand domains are an example of cheap options. Buy words, names and things you like for $7.99 just in case you need them.

Slide 16: Automation One real option a developer holds is the choice to automate or not. This crosses testing, help systems, service, et al. The option to automate has a premium. Keep assessing these options to see what needs to be exercised.

Slide 17: Marc Lehmann marc@saasu.com skype: marcleh twitter: marclehmann mobile: +61 434 033 945 web: saasu.com blog: saasu.com/blog personal blog: marclehmann.net linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/marclehmann Copyright 2008 Saasu Pty Ltd, 1st Floor, 111 Elizabeth St Sydney, Australia 2000