Africa-Press – Uganda. Young Innovators must research and understand their target market through applying the know-your-customer approach when developing new products.
Speaking during the ongoing Women in Fintech Hackathon in Kampala yesterday, Ms Primera Muthoni, an ICT product development expert and a mentor with Girls4Girls, Uganda, said that the only way to develop a sustainable product is by identifying a problem, knowing the audience it affects and coming up with a solution.
Therefore, she said, innovators must identify competitive advantages and include them in their product development stages such that they can be compelling to potential investors.
“An investor wants to see where you are headed. Does your product have a promise? How do market projections look like?” Ms Muthoni, said adding that a good product must have a product and technology roadmap, which should be realized within 12 weeks.
“By the time the product is ready, make sure you have double or triple-checked it. Leave no room for a foul start because it creates a bad perception about your product,” she said.
The ongoing Women in Fintech Hackathon, which has attracted participation of 17 women-led teams of between two to four members each, has since Friday last week been mentoring innovators on creating sustainable products.
The teams are tasked with creating financial inclusion solutions that address community needs, aided by Level One Project principles and latest technologies.
The Hackathon has been hosting mentors including Ms Catherine Namara; a telecom engineer, project management expert and head of fundraising and strategy at Girls4Girls and Ms Doreen Lukandwa, the Beyonic/MFS Africa vice president (global enterprises).
The week-long Hackathon, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, Modusbox, Mojaloop and Level One Project, will culminate into the Women in Fintech summit on Friday where the three top teams will be announced and rewarded with cash prizes in addition to being part of a 90-day business incubator programme.
Empowering Innovators
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HiPipo remains a premier advocate for creation, dissemination and adoption of digital financial services, offering support to innovators to develop solutions that collectively improves people’s livelihoods.
The first Women in Fintech initiative was held in 2020, offering insights on the readiness of women to play a starring role in digital financial services as well as fill the product gap the sector currently contends with.
During the initiative at least 15 teams participated of which three were supported to grow into startups.
Each was supported with a market ready Minimum Viable Product that were recently showcased during the just concluded 40 Days 40 Fintechs initiative.
