Change or Die

Voice of the customer (Asset or Baby part 2)

Let’s talk about Baby businesses. Sometimes you just need to know when to walk away.

I have a friend that started a software company a long time ago. They never really listened to what the customer was saying about their product. Instead they took the engineer approach which is “hey this is the greatest product since sliced bread. Everyone should want this. I just don’t understand why they are not buying it.” And the kept plugging away, and plugging away adding the “one missing feature” that was preventing them from buying it. The fundamental problem was that they never stopped to listen to what the customer wanted. Since they never listened, they were never going to be successful. They might have had a few sales here and there but in the long run it is not going to work. That is because regardless if is the best thing ever, if it is not what the customer wants, the customer is not going to buy it. plain and simple.

– Listen to the customer, start listening to customers before you start building a product. You can gues what the customer wants, but you will guess wrong. Why waste time working on something customers don’t want?

– Deliver sooner rather than later. The first version of the product doesn’t have be perfect. It just has to solve enough of the customer’s problems to be valuable to them.

– Recognize need for change. Pull the plug on something that isn’t working as soon as you realize it isn’t working. Every day you delay is a day wasted.