Digital BaobabBringing Digital Ideas to Life

What is Digital Baobab We are a digital strategy agency who believes that ‘strategy is execution’. We assist operators, banks and other providers to develop the right digital products for their customers. We help organisations think and act like lean startups, to build up the optimal internal capabilities necessary to ensure that they bring successful products to market in this digital age.

What we do At Digital Baobab we focus on product development and market execution to enable financial services and mobile operator clients to successfully develop and bring to market the ideas that will drive the future of their industries. We do this in two ways. Firstly, we bring lean start up discipline to internal product innovation and development functions. Then we apply product marketing techniques developed in the high-tech sector in order to craft the compelling consumer propositions necessary for those products to stimulate market demand.

How we work Through our sister company Mobile Money Consulting we have been advising clients in the mobile and financial services sectors at a strategic level for a number of years. Sitting down with senior management we plot a course for their business and how it needs to be positioned to take full advantage of how we see the market developing over the coming years.

During this experience it has become noticeable that even though a company might be positioned correctly at a strategic level, some find the execution of that strategy to be the biggest barrier to success. We felt that there was a need across the mobile and financial services industries to assist these organisations by

focusing on digital strategy execution and ensuring that they develop the right digital products for their markets.

So we launched Digital Baobab. Digital Baobab takes strategy advisory a step further by focusing on its execution. We embed ourselves deep within the client’s product development function to ensure initially that it is optimally structured. If required, we provide a review and refresh of market strategy. We then focus on putting in place the right processes to enable the client to firstly develop the products the market wants and subsequently to successfully bring that product to market. We do this by applying the lean start up product development and high-tech product marketing methodologies that have underpinned success in other sectors.

What is lean product development? Th e l e a n s t a r t u p a p p ro a c h t o p ro d u c t development allows organisations to build the right products for their markets by eliciting customer feedback in the product development process as early as possible. It emphasises continuous improvement through validated learning, allowing product teams to learn fast and, if necessary, to fail fast.

It takes as its inspiration the l e a n m a n u f a c t u r i n g production line of famous Toyota Production System w h o s e a i m w a s t h e complete elimination of waste. However the lean startup methodology differs

from lean manufacturing in that the customer and the product are not known at the outset. Instead they are replaced by the startup (or innovation unit’s) assumptions, or hypothesis, of what the market is and what the product should look like. These hypotheses are

then continuously tested using Minimal Viable Products (MVPs).

It is through applying this methodology to digital product innovation that allows new entrants to disrupt the banking, payments and commerce industries and to bring their products to market faster at the expense of their more established peers.

But the good news is that these methodologies can also be embraced by larger organisations, and not just their specialist innovation units. Whole divisions or even companies can be reorganised cross-functionally around being lean. By adopting other lean methods, such as lean UX and lean engineering, mobile operators and financial services providers can themselves bring the right digital products to market as quickly as those that threaten to disrupt them.

You can find out more about how this process can work for you by visiting the Insights page on the Digital Baobab site.

What is hi-tech product marketing? Building the right product for your market via lean methods is one half of the product development equation. Successfully bringing it to market is the other. Once a digital product is built it is often handed over to the marketing and sales departments whose job it is then to position and sell it. Yet the target market, the market problem and the product features to address this problem were all identified by the product team during the product development process. To leave them out of the marketing process now just doesn’t make sense.

What is needed is someone who understands the product in depth yet can also speak the language of marketing. And this someone is known as a ‘Product Marketer’ – and they sit within the product

team. Yes, that’s right – the product function is responsible for product marketing – not the marketing department. It was the product team that listened to the market when building the MVP that turned into a full blown product and now it is that team that is in the best position to craft the necessary compelling propositions to sell it. Often it will require the creation of a new role within the product team with marketing messaging skills.

This approach to product marketing is something that has been employed by the high-tech sector for years and has underpinned success there. Yet it is seldom embraced in the mobile or financial services industries. It is a methodology that can help you successfully bring to market your digital creations and keep you one step ahead of your competitors.

Digital Baobab

How we can help – Mobile Operators Many operators are looking to build on their MFS assets to develop their own mCommerce offerings. Bringing a new digital product to market can be daunting, as the mixed results with MFS have shown us. However the chances of success can be optimised by introducing basic lean startup

discipline to product development and a high-tech approach to product marketing.

At Digital Baobab we can:

• advise you on the right digital product strategy for your market

• build up core competencies within product management and product marketing

• ensure the right structures, skills and processes are in place to enable you to develop the right right digital products for your market

• assist you in crafting the necessary consumer propositions to ensure success in the market

• audit your current digital product set, benchmarking against global best practice

• help execute your initial mCommerce strategy (sourcing content, partner engagement, consumer propositions, app strategy).

How we can help – Financial Services The banking and financial services sectors are being disrupted by both regulatory and digital change. New entrants are attempting to gain a foothold in both industries while established players face being disintermediated from their customers. Both parties need to perfect their digital offerings to ensure that they remain credible with the market. At Digital Baobab we can help you:

• bring new digital products to market quicker by introducing lean startup methods

• develop compelling consumer propositions for the products you develop

• audit your current digi ta l product set , benchmarking against global best practice

• help you to understand the digital supplier landscape and the art of the possible

• assist you in delivering a consistent multichannel experience to your customers

• help you implement resulting digital change programs.

Digital Baobab

How we can help – Technology Vendors Both mobile operators and banks are looking for technology partners who can help them to develop the right digital products to sell in their  markets. Enabling your clients to bring successful digital products to market should be an essential part of your B2B2C offering. A vendor who can assist their customers in the market will drive transaction volumes over their platform and allow be well positioned to move beyond initial MFS use cases into other lucrative areas such as mCommerce. Bringing a partnership approach to the new digital landscape will open up new revenue streams ensuring the long term viability of your technology and your client relationships.

What is B2B2C Selling? Many technology vendors rightly focus the majority of their sales efforts on the ‘B2B’ part of the process. They – a business - are selling their technology platform to another business - B2B. However, in this age of digital disruption, mobile operators and financials services firms are looking for a technology partner that can also help them sell to their own customers –the ‘2C’ part of the equation. In particular, they often require assistance with their product strategy, product development and product marketing.

How can Digital Baobab help? By partnering with Digital Baobab we can equip you with the necessary strategic and B2B2C product marketing and selling capabilities ensuring your client has the bes t chance o f succeeding when launching  their digital products. This joint approach allows both parties to concentrate on their strengths – the vendor on ‘B2B’ and Digital Baobab on the ‘2C’.

Get in contact with Digital Baobab today:

e: killian.clifford@digitalbaobab.com w: digitalbaobab.com t: +44 7763118702 a: 166 Croxted Road, London SE21 8NW Digital Baobab - a Mobile Money Consulting company

Digital Baobab