Sparks
Sparks are innovative, adaptable prompts. They help hone a specific skill or inspire big ideas.
You have a great idea. Excellent!
Now. Do you know who you are designing for and what high priority problem your idea addresses?
There might be more to the problem than you assume. And more product opportunities and ways of delivering them. Consider ideas others have had that you see differently.
Are there undiscovered
Product Opportunities
in the wild?
You've done your homework and found a significant problem for a key population. You've dreamed up an array of ways to address the problem.
Your team has expertise in a couple of directions, and you are working toward possible business models.
Is your original concept still in play?
How do you soft or hard
Pivot
to exploit this new information?
You've narrowed the array of ways to address your key population's problem. Your thing is becoming technically or operationally sound.
Do you know which combination of user abilities is desirable? How this combination should be presented in the thing? How do you know that your thing is worth pursuing?
What predetermined user and product metrics reliably indicate a
Go, or No-Go
product decision?
You may choose wisely. But without the right information you would be lucky to choose in a way that wins in this particular game.
Susan Wilhite
Product/Market Fit
What's missing is the end user.
Your idea is a hypothesis. A guess about the problem, and an even bigger guess about the "solution".
Thoroughly understand the problem, if there is one, and whether and to what degree it is a problem. Then you understand the opportunity and the direction of your build.
Avenir Light
Part 1 showing Tristan's "problem" diagram then his fast strategy, higher control model.
Slow Strategy,
Fast Growth
On the left, a strategy is created and run in response to what happens in the world. An informed strategy has inherent buffer capacity that affords flexibility to survive and thrive in a morphing business ecosystem.
On the right, a strategy is seemingly created and run based on what the organization wants to do and is capable of doing. The world (external forces) is seemingly off the table. For example, socio-cultural shifts, economic events, government regulations, trade and supply chain operations… climate change.
Avenir Light
My version of Tristan's model.
Strategy Informed
by the Real World
And yet, external forces will not be ignored. What’s missing from the image is the external forces first, internal forces second, and external engagement third.
Strategy built on untested assumptions is a shot in the dark. There's a more organic, more ecological, path. One that does not force an input (internal strategy) from a single entity into the chosen niche.
Your startup is not at the mercy of external forces. Since your offering will play in the external world you need a custom map, and the rules at play, of your field.
What I believe
I say this to everyone.
"A product or service should be so well designed and executed that there is no need for marketing. Maybe demonstration of use cases to promote a value proposition, but that’s it."
Service Name
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