E156: Agile-based billing to reduce custom project risk with Mike Reynolds

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Mike Reynolds is the CEO of Innovatemap, a digital product agency located in Broad Ripple. Mike has been ideating and delivering digital products to market for over 20 years. He is an expert in product management, user experience, and product marketing. Mike believes there is a digital solution to every problem.

Mike brings a fresh perspective on product strategy and guides clients to find the right product-market fit.

Episode highlights:

• What does agile development mean on the billing side.
• What you need before you start working within an agile model.
• Mike’s recommended starting points for trying out this model.
• How Mike attracts and retains clients.
• How Mike’s business has been affected by Covid.
• Best advice received: Take care of your team, they’ll take care of you.
• Habit that contributes to success: Time management.
• Recommended tools: Dropbox paper, Slack
• Recommended book: Inspired by Marty Cagan (good place to start with agility)
• Run time: 34:43

Links:

• Innovatemap.com
• LinkedIn
• Instagram (for team and culture)
• Better Product community, with podcast and blog

Quotes:

• “Change is a natural part of building complex tech products.”
• “Time, scope, and money—you can only fix two of them.”
• “It’s the way that they want to buy, not want to make a leap on such a big commitment.”
• “They’re not buying a menu.”
• “You gotta have the outcome in mind.”
• “We don’t do a lot of hunting, we don’t do a lot of cold calling.”
• “There are enough problems on people’s minds right now.”

Takeaways:

• Rather than giving exact quotes, Mike tells stories and gives ranges.