Feasibility Study

do you recommend one?

[fashezee]

I have a client the would like to undertake a large project. However,
it has not been determined that there is a market for the service he wishes
to provide.

Should I recommend he conduct a Feasibility Study and risk
finding out that the project should not go forward, hence losing the contract?
Is it my responsibility as a web developer or the clients to determine if the
project as feasible?

How much does feasibility studies go for?

[txbakers]

Interesting question.

I would spend some time on a feasability study before investing thousands of dollars in a project. Even a regional "test market" would be good.

Yes, you might lose the contract, but I think your reputation would be better off in the long run - rather than the guy that sold me this $50,000 white elephant.

[fathom]

Do a little research for a consultant that does this sort of study in the clients markets.

And recommend it as part of your package.

Bottom line you have a 50 - 50 change on market (a niche) availability. And as you move further from niche to general that percentage increases dramatically.

In addition, make the study an option for increased performance, this way the client can decision-make removing the responsibility further away from you, avoiding relationship strain and integrity issues.

[jaski]

Valuable tips fathom

Bottom line you have a 50 - 50 change on market (a niche) availability. And as you move further from niche to general that percentage increases dramatically.

But I did not quite understand the above statement...could you please elaborate a bit on this.

Thanks
Jaski

[chiyo]

It all depends on risk. We are a market research company that does feasibility studies, and we take the client through the cost effectiveness of "suck it and see" or testing the market first. Feasibility studies can also range from small to large in comprehensiveness, but really it comes down to what is the investment you have to put into the service/product before the time you know whether it is a go or nogo proposition. If that is high, a feasibility study is recommended and can also suggest how best to target best as well, so when you start you have a much better idea of your market, saving much money then.

The client, if they are smart, should know this anyway, and you will demonstrate your professionalism by suggesting he/she at least considers a feasibility study.

Of course I have an interest here, and moderators feel free to delete...

[fathom]

As always, I think it and chiyo's PC magically types it (a little like virtual reality) thanks chiyo.

But I did not quite understand the above statement...could you please elaborate a bit on this.

A market, is a market, is a market and a very broad term. So is feasibility.

Other than "widgets" I doubt very much that there is "no market" for whatever the projects is, and quite sizable at that.

However, a qualified markets may not be what you think.

An attempt at an example: "downloads" on any given day there are 200+ million downloads served up to users from the web, everything from mp3's, software (freeware, shareware, demos) e-books, reports, studies, web based server side tools, and so on.

Huge overall market for downloads but also too broad. So let's take a look at "mp3's", a well known and very sizable market.

Napster set a standard, mp3's (music) should be "free" and used as demo's for the real thing (Music CDs). But they were bad, and now gone, but the markets themselves are are still there.

Big business record labels saw their chance for a huge cash cow but they initially did not look at the feasibility of charging for mp3's.

you have a 50 - 50 change on market (a niche) availability

In all likelihood there is...

MP3's: a well received digital format, large following (market), compressed, portable, replicatible, diversity in playback and recording devices, in both software and hardware version, and so on.

"Music" lovers did want to pay for it... but is the another market that may?

with all the pluses I mentioned, your darn right there is.

Anything that doesn't require a video feed.

Can you do this without serious research, yes.

Will it likely succeed, yes (given enough time).

A bit like theming a web site... sometimes a theme can pop out of the blue just because someone types in a magical arrangement of words, came to your site, didn't find what they were looking for, but you noticed the query, then investigated, and found that (e.g. dads were looking for online bedtime story, audio files in droves so that the kids could be read to sleep while the hockey game was on.

A feasibility study mostly is risk management to identify if there "IS" a preceive market available for the project to preceed.

And I highly recommend the client take on a professional, but if they choose not to, in all likelihood markets can be found... they just may not be who you currently think. As you stray further from "music mp3's" I'm quite certain that larger groups of users are looking for other types of mp3's

In this instance, I changed the product but it can work the other way around. Noting the web site in my sticky and the secondary sites, cater to different markets all looking for different things but very happy with same product. (e.g.- Educational Software to academic institutions, or homeschoolers, or for home studies, or for science fair projects/ideas, and for e-learning subscriptions) same software different markets though.

[jaski]

Thanks fathom :)