ARTICLE | APRIL, 4
From ideas to products:
strategic proposals
By Nathaly Estevanot
Proposals for software development projects don’t necessarily follow a linear workflow. Each opportunity is unique and requires specific strategies to navigate the journey toward success.
Whether you have a simple idea or detailed technical requirements, our process always centers on understanding, challenging, and optimizing the technological path to your solution.
As a Sales Support Analyst at Patagonian, I’ve witnessed firsthand how effectively crafting proposals is a collaborative effort across departments, grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the client’s needs.
It’s about transforming needs and requirements (sometimes well-defined, other times barely sketched out) into strategic documents that serve as a roadmap for developing innovative, viable, and scalable technological solutions. In this process, interacting with engineering, sales, and staffing teams is key to ensuring the proposal is accurate and valuable.
What should a software development proposal include?
An effective proposal is more than just a figure on a quote. At Patagonian, we focus on building a document that answers the key concerns that arise when considering a new project.
Here are some key questions a software proposal should address:
- What are the key benefits of this solution, and how will we measure its impact?
- What is our proposed technical approach, and why have we opted for it?
- How will the development team be structured, and what value does each member or role bring to the project?
- What functional areas will we focus on?
- What deliverables and milestones can be expected in each iteration, and how will we measure our effectiveness?
- What is the estimated time frame, and what is its associated cost?
Put simply, for every new challenge, we develop a tailored proposal that goes beyond a basic scope of work. We explore a range of potential solutions and are committed to going the extra mile. We clearly articulate the rationale behind our technology recommendations and detail the value each team member brings to the table.
The importance of clarity in product scoping
Naturally, stakeholders in a tech project expect a clear understanding of the investment involved. Therefore, the more defined the scope and the functionalities, the easier it will be to design a work plan to fulfill those expectations.
Having this clarity from the outset is key to making better technical and business decisions. Once, a Patagonian Tech Lead made a remark that illustrates the importance of being clear during this stage:
“Geolocation [expected feature] can mean many different things. It could be a simple spot on a map, an approximate radius to preserve privacy or a real-time geolocation sharing system. If we don’t align expectations from the start, estimated costs can vary significantly, and we can end up solving a different problem than the one we truly need to address.”
How to define the scope of the intended digital product or service?
It’s common not to have the exact definition of your expected digital product or service. You might be in the ideation phase and need help with design; perhaps you’re looking to raise capital with an initial prototype, or you may be considering optimizing the security and scalability of an existing solution but aren’t sure about the complexity of these changes.
For all these scenarios, we’ve developed different exploration mechanisms to help better define the scope and strategy of each project:
- Exploratory calls: An Account Manager and a Technical Leader work with stakeholders to understand their needs and potential approaches.
- Scoping sessions: A Product Owner joins structured sessions to help clients define expectations, key features, and the initial roadmap.
- Technical reviews: If the client has already launched their product but they aren’t exactly sure about the improvements needed, our technical team conducts an assessment to propose optimizations through a clear roadmap.
- Product discoveries: Following a proven methodology, we collaborate on the functional and technical definition of the product to establish a solid foundation for its development (MVP, architecture, prototypes, among others). The structure and duration may vary according to specific needs. This allows for early detection of problems and opportunities, risk mitigation, and ensures an efficient ROI.
A strategic alliance: your compass in digital transformation
The success of your digital transformation often hinges on having the right strategic partner. It can make the difference between a successful project and one that falls short of its goals. Whether you’re in the early stages of conceptualization or analyzing proposals to scale your platform, it’s crucial to work with a team that not only develops code but also helps define the path forward.
At Patagonian, we operate under an agile and user-centered design methodology. Our goal is to find the best technological fit for each project to design dynamic, scalable solutions aligned with your business needs.
Over more than a decade in the industry, we’ve refined the development of technical-business proposals at various scales, including high-impact regional initiatives with strict bidding processes.
As an example, we can analyze the project we developed with the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) and the Ministry of Education of Chile, where we developed and delivered generative AI-powered agents (chatbots). These agents provide personalized guidance and 24/7 support, with a focus on improving teacher retention and boosting enrollment in pedagogy-related university programs.
If you’re looking to develop a new custom solution or want to enhance the scalability and security of an existing product, Patagonian is here to guide you through the process. Contact us, and let’s design the best strategy for your vision together.
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