Partnerships - SOURCE and PRODUCE

As a startup, your skills, expertise, systems, budget and time is sometimes

limited. Given this constraint, you should consider partnerships - where
possible - especially for any activities that are not critical or core to your
value proposition.

When considering potential Partnerships, you should look at your SOURCE

and PRODUCE Activities and Processes and determine whether you have the
in-house Operational Capabilities to complete these tasks. In other words,
do you have the skills, expertise, systems, budget, and the time to complete
each of these activities in-house?

These two articles discuss the pros and cons of partnering and outsourcing
activities in the PRODUCE stage for a product company and a software
company.

KPIs - SOURCE and PRODUCE

For each stage of the Value Chain Canvas, you will then need to identify your
Key Performance Indicators - KPIs. Metrics are important because they will
help you measure and track whether the different components of your value
chain are effective. It is important to identify key performance indicators for
each stage, to ensure the effectiveness of your value chain from end-to-end.
If you are doing a great job of sourcing your resources - but are ineffective
in delivering your products and services - you will not be able to achieve
your customer satisfaction.

Your KPIs should ensure that EACH stage of the value chain aligns with your
Customer Value Proposition and your Customer Satisfaction Goals. For
example, if your Value Proposition is Delivery Speed, then a SOURCE KPI
could be the lead time it takes to get your resources from your supplier to
your startup, and a PRODUCE KPI could be the lead time it takes from the
time the customer places an order to the time the customer receives the
order. These KPIs are important because any delays in the SOURCE or
PRODUCE stage could impact your ability to meet your value proposition and
customer satisfaction goal.

Activity:
In this assignment, you will identify KPIs for the SOURCE and PRODUCE
stages of your startup, which align with your Customer Value Proposition and
your Customer Satisfaction Goals.

Answer the following questions using Google Doc, MS Word, or another tool
of your choice.

What is your Customer Satisfaction Goal metric?

What is your KPI for the SOURCE stage?
What is your KPI for the PRODUCE stage?