In some of my coaching and training, I tend to check with the participants, especially those in product development, whether they have the initial tendency to begin improving their new product if their customers are not interested.
Unsurprisingly, they will answer with a resounding yes.
This may be appropriate in a world of scarcity, where product development is expensive and risky, and organisations that have the resources to develop compelling products will likely win. However, in today’s abundant world and with the cost of product development decreasing (most recent example I can think of is BYD, who is now offering EVs for less than US 10,000 ( https://lnkd.in/gqAzgqrC), resulting in a multitude of products entering the market, the ‘market’ is risky and even compelling products may have a hard time finding a market.
The truth is that in today’s business environment, it may not be the product but the market. Even if your product ‘fit’ the market you are targeting, and it is still not working, it might be your business model.
The point is, in today’s business environment, continuous experimentation is required until you find the right market for your product, the right business strategy, and even the right team. As Steve Blank described in his four-step customer development process, it is critical to identify and solve defects in product and company designs before they become costly, i.e., find and validate your customers before launching your business.
This principle may be simple to grasp, but it is difficult to put into practice due to our short-term bias, which expects to see returns on investment as soon as possible. Finding your ‘product-market’ fit through an iterative method will result in a hockey stick curve (as opposed to a linear growth curve), with the turning point taking weeks, months, or even years to scale. This is evident in some of the largest corporations today, which have expanded enormously over the last decade.
In today’s ambiguous environment, where it is difficult to forecast the future, cultivating an experimental mentality is vital for discovering new solutions and improving outcomes.