Categories
Uncategorized

Idea, Product, Business

Your division starts off on a new project with a bang. And months later ends with a whimper. You shut the thing down, your folks are terribly frustrated but you don’t really know what went wrong. From my experience, here’s probably what happened:

First, there’s the idea.

Then, there’s the productization of that idea.

Finally, there’s the business built around that product.

But you cannot make money off an idea. You can only make money from a business. And you cannot take an idea to market. You can only take a product to market.

Too often, Management doesn’t see the difference between the three and misses asking the right questions at the stage those questions need to be asked. The result is usually a shoddy product, reactive execution, management by crisis, a demoralized team and money down the drain.

Been there before?

If you rush to build a business around nothing more than an idea, you’ll probably find that

Your audience doesn’t understand your product because you don’t understand the audience. Or you spent so much time early on thinking about monetization you didn’t think enough about adoption.  Or by the time you launched, your product was a year behind its competition. Or you built your mobile app for a platform your early adopters don’t use. Or you launched without customer support or the ability to collect feedback.  Or you give up on the product too quickly because it didn’t really really excite you to begin with.

Seem familiar?

Here’s what I think might help avoid these holes:

When evaluating an idea you’d ask

  • Has this problem already been solved?
  • Does our organization – firm, company, startup – understand this space?
  • Is this way of doing business in our DNA?
  • Does it personally excite you, o ringmaster?
  • When the product will be ready, will it still be relevant?

And then, once the idea’s passed evaluation and you’ve begun to build,

  • Who are your early adopters?
  • How do we put together the talent needed to get this out the door?
  • What platform do we develop for? (mobile platform, web platform)
  • What features do we bake in/leave out?
  • What is our go-to-market plan?
  • What kind of customer support should we have (phone/email/in-app form)
  • How will we collect feedback?
  • What parameters will we monitor?

Once you’ve launched, gotten traction, feedback and momentum,

  • How do we make money?
  • What does our product roadmap look like? How often do we release?

You’re likely better off asking these questions when they really matter. Not too early, not too late. #Ilearntthehardway.

One reply on “Idea, Product, Business”

Brilliant. This belongs to both Management 101 and Engineering 101 classes.

Comments are closed.