Category: New Business Development

Stephen Shapiro has a fascinating article
on innovation lessons
from cultural anthropology.

He talks about the power of observation
vs listening to what customers say.
“Where possible, you can observe your customers.
By doing this you can find unarticulated needs and wants.”

It is really easy
to simply ask a customer a question
and use that answer.
Unfortunately, people lie,
often unintentionally.
As most people want to be liked,
they’ll tell you what you want to hear.

A clear example of that
was the low carb fad.
Customers said they wanted low carb
yet they continued eating their burgers
and their fries.

People will say they eat healthy
yet obesity (and chocolate sales)
is on the increase.

Go out and observe your customers.
Commute the way they do.
Eat at their restaurants.
Read what they’re reading.

Nothing beats observation!

A writer told me recently
that she wanted
to write the ‘perfect’ novel.

She isn’t published.
Why?
Because there’s no such thing.

Goals are obtainable.
Perfection is not obtainable.
Perfection is not a goal.

If you have the word perfect
anywhere
in your goal setting,
take it out.

I believe in entrepreneurship.
I will always volunteer my ideas
on how to get around start up hurdles.
I love to support new businesses
and innovative ideas.

But
You won’t ever find me
writing a rah-rah-rah
everyone should be an entrepreneur post.

Everyone should NOT be an entrepreneur.
That’s one long, tough road.
Many who start down it
won’t reach their goals.

And if you need to be sold on the idea
BEFORE you start,
you’ll quit at the first speed bump
(or disaster).
You need the passion,
the 100% conviction to push past that.

Support entrepreneurship.
Don’t sell it.

In my experience,
there are two types of people
on your project team.

There are the
‘do it now’ folks.
People like me
who prefer to do a task right away
and get it off their to do list.
They don’t want to do half a task.
They want to get it done and move on.

And there are the
‘do it at the last minute’ folks.
These are the people
who ask when a deadline is.
They ask
because that is the day
they plan to do the task.
Again, they plan to do it all at one time.

I recently received information about a contest.
It was sent now
and
we could sign up now
but we weren’t allowed to send the entries
until February.

The organizers are wondering why there were no entries.
Why?

Because the last minute people
will wait until February.
The do it now people if they did it now
will still have the item on their to-do list
so they also didn’t bother entering.

When delegating tasks,
design them so they can be completed at one time.
You’ll increase the likelihood
of it getting done.

A big part of successfully managing
a product development team
is working with
the different personalities.

No one is perfect.
Every member of your team
has foibles and weaknesses.
It is NOT your job
to ‘fix’ these weaknesses.
That is almost impossible
and will distract you from your real job,
launching the product.

You work WITH the weaknesses.

If one member of your team
is always late,
you have him present
later in the meeting.

If another forgets meetings,
send out reminders.

Work with your team members
as they are.

A large ePublisher has a call out
for stories
with poetry somewhere in the plot.
I LOVE these calls for submission.

Why?

Because there is nothing
that makes creativity flow
like a constraint,
the more unusual the better.

You would think it would be the opposite.
It isn’t
because constraints force you
to come up with different solutions.
I can’t hand in my same ol’ story line.

In the superb post
101 Tips from 50 Small Business Bloggers
(well worth the read),
Garr Reynolds shares
“Embrace constraints.
Constraints and limitations are wonderful allies
and lead to enhanced creativity
and ingenious solutions
that without constraints
never would have been discovered
or created.”

An artist friend of mine
dreams of making her living
by sharing her paintings with the world.
That gig is a tough one to land.

Meanwhile she has to eat
so she designs book covers.
She designs as many book covers
as she needs to,
paying the bills.
Leftover time and money
goes towards her paintings
completed with the sole purpose
of changing the world.
Because she doesn’t need to sell these paintings
tomorrow to pay rent,
she can be true to her art.

Another buddy designs software.
He’s working on a big world changing project
but as he also has to eat,
he takes contract gigs
for the cash.
The contract gigs allow him
to stick to his ideals
with the big project.

Both buddies have been accused
of selling out.
I believe it is the opposite.
They’ve sacrificed
to bring their projects to life.
The biggest thing they’ve sacrificed
is their pride.

Don’t let pride stop you
from changing the world.

When I first started seriously writing
about ten years ago,
paranormal romance was heating up.
Writers were cautioned that this was a fad
and that they should concentrate on the next trend
rather than jump on the paranormal romance band wagon.

A decade later
that ‘fad’ is still going strong
and editors can’t seem to get enough paranormal stories.
The next trend?
It hasn’t happened (yet).

Trying to predict what your customers want today
is challenging if not impossible.
Trying to predict what your customers want tomorrow?
Impossible.
Better to take an existing timeless need
and try to innovate around it.

Matthew E. May has a wonderful post
on designing to the future.

A great product developer
always compares her packaging
to her competitor’s.

A major beverage company I worked for
mocks up a shelf of competitor product
(easy to do on the computer)
and inserts their proposed package
into the shelf,
moving that package around,
ensuring that it pops
regardless of placement.

Why?

Because 70% of purchase decisions
are made in-store.
Because 68% of in-store purchases
are impulse decisions.
Because shoppers make those impulse decisions
in 3 to 7 seconds.

If your product doesn’t stand out
(in a good way)
and deliver the right selling message,
you’re losing out on 70% of your possible sales.

Spend time on package design.

Oh, and make certain your package FITS
on shelf.
If it is taller than the standard shelf height,
(I’ve seen that happen)
your product won’t be placed.
You’ll then lose out on 100% of sales.

I’m working on a new novel
(tentative release date 2012).
I got the idea from a newspaper heading
(I steal all my best ideas).
I have a fair idea where it is going.

I haven’t told anyone about it yet.

Why?

Because there is a sensitive time
between getting an idea
and being able to effectively sell an idea.

If you share the idea too early,
you won’t have the ability to sell it
(as you’re still exploring the idea)
so
it will be torn apart
(often as The Engaging Brand shares,
due to politics).
Because you haven’t yet committed to the idea
(accomplished by spending time with it)
you won’t care enough to defend it.
Your idea will die.

Until you can sell an idea properly,
keep it to yourself.