Disproved: Successful new products are launched exactly the way they are envisioned
Vision drives new products. But too much vision can kill them. Where is the line? And what really happens in high-growth startups?
How to check if you have the “right” message, if you are in a solution-aware market
Positioning a product in a solution aware market goes far beyond just benefits and features. Here’s what you need to compete effectively (and how to do it).
How to balance working on growth with searching for product-market fit
Here’s Marc Andreesen’s take in the original article which coined the term “product-market fit”: The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market. You can always feel when product/market fit isn’t happening. The customers aren’t quite getting value out…
How to identify your riskiest assumption
Richard Branson, the billionaire adventurer, has a complicated relationship with risk. On the one hand, he loves trying outdoorsy stunts and attempts to break world records. For example, he managed to cross the Atlantic, Pacific, and then circumnavigated the globe in a balloon. He even succeeds at doing so, despite the occasional crash: On the…
Why your riskiest assumption is a great place to start with any new product or idea
“First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.” Nicholas Klein commenting on a strike at the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America conference in 1914 This quote is often misattributed to Ghandi. In fact, there was a festering conflict between thousands…
4 approaches to track your assumptions, when starting to work on a new business idea
In The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses, Amar Bhide reported that 2/3 of the Inc 500 company founders he interviews pivoted away from their original concept: More that one third of the Inc 500 founders we interviewed significantly altered their initial concepts, and another third reported moderate changes. In other words, it’s best to assume…
Why estimating cognitive effort simplifies knowledge work
“There were only an estimated two to five thousand humans alive in Africa sixty thousand years ago. We were literally a species on the brink of extinction! And some scientists believe (from studies of carbon-dated cave art, archaeological sites, and human skeletons) that the group that crossed the Red Sea to begin the great migration was a mere…
How to resource projects and products–optimizing for elapsed time, motivated teams, and budget
In my last post, I explored the implication of a shift in importance and value of resources. Given increasingly shorter time frames for product life cycles, I think time is an increasingly undervalued resource. Zooming in to a sub-micro level, I think we’re also looking at a paradigm shift with resource allocation within high technology…
How to derive expected velocity from strategic dates
The contrast between ideal and real is powerful. Makes you focus. By not paying enough attention to the gap between the ideal and real, you may end up with a complete blowout like Fyre Festival founder McFarland. I heard of it only long after it happened by watching the Netflix documentary. Clearly I’m not the…