{"id":1906,"date":"2014-02-06T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T18:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=1906"},"modified":"2014-02-03T11:26:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T19:26:35","slug":"the-three-step-dance-creating-a-great-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=1906","title":{"rendered":"The three step dance – creating a great company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creating a gerat company in a relative vacuum is an exercise in complete trust that the entrepreneur knows what\u2019s best for the customer, perhaps even without interaction with such a customer.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably happened, but not often enough to trust this method as a formula for success.<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019ve developed the three step dance<\/i> in order to help form a repeatable method of how to create a great company from an early idea.<\/p>\n

The first step: Involve potential customers early<\/i>. Even if you know it all – wouldn\u2019t it be an excellent plan to try your idea out on enough actual or potential customers to measure reasonable feedback?<\/p>\n

You can use or discard the information you receive.\u00a0 We now know that Steve Jobs created in relative secrecy several of his products that became massive industry drivers of change.\u00a0 The iPad probably would have failed before production, had he used feedback and research from past failures of tablets in any previous form as a guide.\u00a0 On the other hand, most products or services are created in response to a real or perceived need.\u00a0 And most of us are not Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n

[Email readers, continue here…]<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 The second step: Take feedback seriously<\/i>.\u00a0 Making the effort to gather metrics from the field in any form and then ignoring it, takes guts and determination – and in most cases a measure of stupidity.\u00a0 As I analyze business plans, I usually ask the \"DBconsulting1\"<\/a>entrepreneur early in the process whether s\/he has tried this idea or prototype or mockup out on potential users.\u00a0 And if so, what was the response?\u00a0 And from how many people?\u00a0 In what related universe?\u00a0 I want to know that potential paying customers have been queried using enough information or a good enough model to get a real response worth taking seriously.\u00a0 Without this, any information received is suspect.\u00a0 And failure to make use of the information is a red flag for investors.<\/p>\n

The third step: Reiterate and return to customers for comments<\/i>. Seeking, then analyzing responses allows you to make changes to the plan and product in response.\u00a0 But what if the changes create other problems for the customer, or miss the mark, or don\u2019t drive these same customers to more positive responses?\u00a0 The best possible second round feedback should come from the very same people who took the time to review the offering the first time. They have context and should see effort and progress.\u00a0 Their comments should therefore be more valued than those from first-time respondents.<\/p>\n

The three step dance:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Involve your customers early.<\/li>\n
  2. Take feedback seriously.<\/li>\n
  3. Reiterate and return to customers for comments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, why not design your product using your real and potential customers as consultants?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Creating a gerat company in a relative vacuum is an exercise in complete trust that the entrepreneur knows what\u2019s best for the customer, perhaps even without interaction with such a customer.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably happened, but not often enough to trust … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finding-your-ideal-niche","category-ignition-starting-up","category-positioning"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}