It's been a week of looking at recipes that aren't working...yes, in the land of start-ups, we do see a lot of recipes that fail for a variety of reasons...not enough of the right ingredients, too much salt when it called for sugar, and of course those that are half-baked ideas!!
I had two client meetings this week where a little tough love was needed. The technology is very cool, leading edge type stuff...but the product is half baked!! What I mean by this is the core technology looks like it has merit, but in both cases, the entrepreneur has not fully thought through "Who Cares" and then translated that core technology into feature sets/value that the customer actually cares most about. The result -- no traction -- the tooth ache -- no money...and the polite nod from investors.
How many times have we seen cool technology that is trying to wedge itself into the market. We assume the customer need and what's worse, we GROSSLY overestimate the amount of energy the customer will expend to figure out how to make our products work. We deliver to the customers kinda/sorta products, but often with the features we care most about and not the value the customer cares most about. We've built a feature set but not a value set. How's this happen? Because we build stuff cuz we can and we lose sight of building what is needed. It goes back to my earlier post this week about "would you pay for this". The sooner we ask the market, the less triage is needed later on.
And please, do not say that you're going after early adopters -- that's not a segment -- it's a characteristic of some people who make up every segment. So find your customer segment who cares most, and some of the first people you'll appeal to will be the early adopters/opinion leaders in that segment. Use my "Market Fishbone" tool if you're still undecided on who your target customer segment is.
My Advice -- Make a Big "T"
So if this sounds like you and you think you're in danger of being half-baked, then try this. Draw a big "T" on a white board -- i mean a big large, size of the whiteboard "T". Write the customer segment name on the top line of the "T" -- then on the left side of the "T", put the customer's real bleeding pains they want to solve. Put 3-4 bullets of the real key pains they need to address. Not what you think, but what they are saying. Get smart on this. Once you've nailed that down, and only after you've nailed it, go to the right side of the "T". For each pain point, write down "what do you offer" - what's the actual specific product feature that has been built to address that big pain.
Be honest and don't fudge it -- don't work right to left, work from pains on the left to features on the right. If you don't have something to address the pain, use a different colored marker and write down what you could build (potentially) to address that pain. If you can't address that specific pain point at all, say so.
Sounds simple, right! Try it, what have you got to lose? Be the devil's advocate and look closely at what you've built and whether it's "real and ready" as I say for the segment.
Best to learn this now, cuz the start-ups I saw this week are finding it very painful to cycle back on this now that they're feeling the pain of not being "real and ready". Having some of the stuff to make the cut with the customers is a recipe for doors shut in your face.
You've got have it all and then some -- just look at how the big guys play the game and then ask yourself, why should it be any different for you?
Simple Stuff, eh? (had to throw in that Canadian translation)!!!
Enjoy your day wherever you are,
Wendy
author/advisor/lady with the flipcharts
www.wendykennedy.com
So what? who cares? why you?
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