So, you have this great idea and now you feel confident to do something about it. Well, if this is the case, you should buckle up, shift into first, push the pedal and start driving slowly up that interchange leading to E-101 – the entrepreneurial superhighway.
it’s not an easy ride, the road is bumpy, some drunk drivers out there, no speed limit what so ever, and in my book, you only get one or two chances to change lanes or intersections, after than you’re just burning fuel.
it’s not an easy ride, the road is bumpy, some drunk drivers out there, no speed limit what so ever, and in my book, you only get one or two chances to change lanes or intersections, after than you’re just burning fuel.
To stick with my cars and highways metaphor, this post is about those crucial minutes right before you put the keys in the ignition. Checking for oil, fuel and directions might come in handy before a long drive, right?
THE IDEA: BEFORE AND AFTER
Hurray! you thought of a great idea that to your opinion is going to change the life of millions around the world, or did you?
I’m not looking to demoralize or god forbid knock the wind out of your sails, but here comes rule #1:
“Thy Shall Sanity-Check Thyself Night and Day, Day and Night”
I’m not looking to demoralize or god forbid knock the wind out of your sails, but here comes rule #1:
“Thy Shall Sanity-Check Thyself Night and Day, Day and Night”
Mostly, the idea is extracted from your personal life and experience. It is rare that a pastry chef will have an idea for cloud computing platform and vice versa. Possible, but rare.
Whether you’re a creator, a visionary or a converged entrepreneur (all-in-one), you’re idea comprises a value proposition of some sort: something can be done better, something can be done cheaper, something can be done more exclusively, and of course – something that hasn’t be done thus far, should be done.
Different types of entrepreneurs start their initiative from a different spot. The visionary will envision a better ‘something’ (product, service, methodology, etc.) and should then seek for a creator to build it with.
The creator will build something great and will then seek for a visionary that will navigate the creation to the right place.
The converged entrepreneur can do both and more, but hopefully still bring in a fellow creator, visionary or delivery guy for the sake of second opinion and sharing the burden.
Whether you’re a creator, a visionary or a converged entrepreneur (all-in-one), you’re idea comprises a value proposition of some sort: something can be done better, something can be done cheaper, something can be done more exclusively, and of course – something that hasn’t be done thus far, should be done.
Different types of entrepreneurs start their initiative from a different spot. The visionary will envision a better ‘something’ (product, service, methodology, etc.) and should then seek for a creator to build it with.
The creator will build something great and will then seek for a visionary that will navigate the creation to the right place.
The converged entrepreneur can do both and more, but hopefully still bring in a fellow creator, visionary or delivery guy for the sake of second opinion and sharing the burden.
You’re one of them. How to sanity check yourself? Research it! first on your own, then with the help of others. Reach out to people of close proximity like friends and family and share your idea with them. Then move to their circles and hear people that are emotionally detached from you. Finally, harness the networks of your first circle friends to reach people that are directly related to your idea’s field.
Your idea is meant to turn into a product, service or market that will cater the needs of others, right? So start with those ‘others’ you’re about to rely address. The internet offers you more than a single way to sense, sniff and listen without having to share your idea with the general public. Whether you’re idea/creation is pointed towards a general audience (a new and improved social network) or towards a segmented crowd (a social network for private investigators), you need to be sure that it’s great for more than one person (YOU).
Divide your research into two: Your target audience and existing/similar/in the making products.
For people, go to social networks, blogs, Q&A sites like Quora and similar, read social studies on Google Scholar and similar, forums threads, influencers blog, etc. It’ll be fairly easy for you to sense a clear necessity if is there. Most odds, it would not be that clear. You don’t need to dig too deep. If it’s not there, it’s not there. It doesn’t mean you’re completely off track. It means the general concept needs to be tuned to an overlapping necessity. Maybe you shouldn’t create a new and improved social network rather than create an add-on that will help improving an existing network. Maybe private investigators don’t care for a social network of their own, BUT will “kill” for a service that was meant to be a feature on your designated network. From just a feature it can turn into THE idea. For example: a collaboration service that allows private investigators to consult in real time. You don’t need to create a social network for that. You need to create an application that can be incorporated in their Facebook account or installed on a handset.
These are simple examples for a super-acute pivotal change in concept and definition, only well ahead of time.
These are simple examples for a super-acute pivotal change in concept and definition, only well ahead of time.
For existing products, search for market analysis reports, market researches, competitive/comparative analysis reports, startup and entrepreneurship hubs likeMashable, TNW, TechCrunch and similar in order to learn about similar inventions that already in the making.
Market research and analysis is a highly mentioned topic on TheMarketeer.Me. I consider it a holy grail of a venture of almost any sort and recommend that at you hire the services of professionals, even if you’re a well experienced marketing person. When you’re leading the way, you’re partially blind folded. You can easily convince yourself and your co-founder(s) that you made the right choices, but even then, a professional with no emotional strings attached may come up with findings that are different than yours. Go for it, the sooner the better. The time and money spent may be expensive in such preliminary stage in the venture’s lifecycle, but trust me – it’s a lot cheaper than realizing you chose the wrong market after spending your seed money. Not worth the frustration. I’ve seen it one time too many.
Market research and analysis is a highly mentioned topic on TheMarketeer.Me. I consider it a holy grail of a venture of almost any sort and recommend that at you hire the services of professionals, even if you’re a well experienced marketing person. When you’re leading the way, you’re partially blind folded. You can easily convince yourself and your co-founder(s) that you made the right choices, but even then, a professional with no emotional strings attached may come up with findings that are different than yours. Go for it, the sooner the better. The time and money spent may be expensive in such preliminary stage in the venture’s lifecycle, but trust me – it’s a lot cheaper than realizing you chose the wrong market after spending your seed money. Not worth the frustration. I’ve seen it one time too many.
I was brought into following this baseline: Different individuals forge similar inventions at the same time, in at least 4 different continents. So, inspire and be inspired, allow yourself to dream, always listen to your intuition, BUT follow cold facts when it comes to product/market decision making – never failed me thus far.
Yes, your intuition may be right when it comes to people: “My intuition tells me something’s wrong about this lady”, not markets and products. You may have a bad feeling about something and comfortably refer to this feeling as an intuition, but it’s not.
“I thought we should take this great technology towards online gaming where I rock, but the market research firm folks are telling us we should take it to the growing field of online fashion. What do I know about fashion?! My intuition tells me we should stick to online gaming” This is not an intuition! You’re confusing intuition with fear from the unknown. Don’t freak out because facts lead to a less or unknown horizon. It doesn’t mean you can’t make it, doesn’t mean the vision/creation is not good. Just means you need more of those ‘excellent people‘ on board. if you still decide to follow your intuition on this side of the venture, and at such preliminary stage, l recommend you avoid raising funds from investors and try and take it on your own to a point where your market of choice is showing positive signs. The reason I’m offering this pathway for this type of decision makers is simple. If you choose the wrong market or product orientation when on your own and end up failing, you report back to yourself. If you do it with other people money, you’re in a pickle. Ever tried explaining failure to shareholders with a “my intuition told me to do it” kind of reason?
Yes, your intuition may be right when it comes to people: “My intuition tells me something’s wrong about this lady”, not markets and products. You may have a bad feeling about something and comfortably refer to this feeling as an intuition, but it’s not.
“I thought we should take this great technology towards online gaming where I rock, but the market research firm folks are telling us we should take it to the growing field of online fashion. What do I know about fashion?! My intuition tells me we should stick to online gaming” This is not an intuition! You’re confusing intuition with fear from the unknown. Don’t freak out because facts lead to a less or unknown horizon. It doesn’t mean you can’t make it, doesn’t mean the vision/creation is not good. Just means you need more of those ‘excellent people‘ on board. if you still decide to follow your intuition on this side of the venture, and at such preliminary stage, l recommend you avoid raising funds from investors and try and take it on your own to a point where your market of choice is showing positive signs. The reason I’m offering this pathway for this type of decision makers is simple. If you choose the wrong market or product orientation when on your own and end up failing, you report back to yourself. If you do it with other people money, you’re in a pickle. Ever tried explaining failure to shareholders with a “my intuition told me to do it” kind of reason?
Eventually, conducting a thorough sanity check will allow provide the entrepreneur with the following tools:
- Descend from 100,000 feet (Good Idea Utopia) to 3 feet and face facts
- Listen to the thoughts of your future target audience
- Slow down and make the proper adjustments before carrying on
- Realize it was a good idea for you and 3 other people only and dump the idea
- Find out you were 100% in the first place and carry on
Hopefully, you already followed the guidelines of this post or about to after reading it.
If it got some of you discouraged or demoralized, read it again. It’s meant to provide you with tools and entrepreneurial methodology that will save you plenty of discomforts and money.
You will make mistake regardless. All startups reach a pivotal change in technology, product and even market of operation. If this post helped some of you to rush the famous pivotal change through, to the very conceptual stage of idea, don’t mention it.
If it got some of you discouraged or demoralized, read it again. It’s meant to provide you with tools and entrepreneurial methodology that will save you plenty of discomforts and money.
You will make mistake regardless. All startups reach a pivotal change in technology, product and even market of operation. If this post helped some of you to rush the famous pivotal change through, to the very conceptual stage of idea, don’t mention it.
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