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More Ideas is Not Better
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I got an ad emailed from a company claiming they set the world brainstorming record by generating 454,000 ideas in one hour with 8,000 people. Let me ask you, how many of those ideas were good?
How many of those ideas are things you could profitably deliver? How many just plain stink.
If you had 8,000 people spitting out random ideas for an hour, how many do you think were the same? I would say most were pointless differences such as a shade of a color, basically copies. Even if all 454,000 were unique, is that all the important ideas for the specific need? If not, was the best idea found or is it still sitting out there undiscovered?
How long will it take to weed through half a million ideas? Can you test 454,000 ideas? How much would that cost? How much time and money would that waste?
More ideas doesn’t equal better ideas. More certainly doesn’t mean the best idea. Your time is the most precious resource you have. You want to get the absolute most value from your time. You need to pin point the correct idea and all the valuable connected ideas immediately so you can deliver without pausing. You need to see in advance what customers want and how to profitably deliver it with readily available resources.
That last sentence is a phrase I use to promote Predictive Innovation but its true, isn’t it. If you wait to react you already lost time before you start. If you work on things you don’t have the resources to complete you waste time & money hitting dead ends or scrambling for the missing pieces when you could be delivering value.
I realize the reason people randomly throw stuff at the wall hoping something sticks is because they don’t know a better way. That’s sad. Have you felt that way? You can do better. I want to help you do better.
What does better mean? It means starting with a reliable way to measure the value of each idea before you have the “idea”. Then a way to draw a boundary around all the relevant ideas so you know what is in and out. Perhaps more importantly see what you missed. Plus have all the ideas organized so you can quickly pinpoint the most valuable great ideas and how they are connected. That maximizes the value and minimizes the risk. Does that sound like what you’re looking for? Can you see how much better that is?
If you want to be part of a new group I’m forming to help entrepreneurs find and successfully launch great businesses and non-profits signup so I can keep you informed.
Cult of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) kills startups
Are you sacrificing your success to the cult of Minimum Viable Product? MVP is a popular mantra in the startup world. Like other religious dogma it’s based on half truths & myths, wastes your time & money, and prevents you from finding the truth.
How does MVP kill startups?
Satisfying customers is the #1 most important goal of a business. If you don’t focus on satisfying customers with laser beam accuracy and Olympic power lifter intensity then give up your dreams of profits. As a startup, your goal is to get enough real paying customers so that your business pays you instead of sucking your life out leaving you to beg in the unemployment line.
Do you actually want a lean startup? Isn’t fat pockets overflowing with cash what you really want? You can have what you really want.
Minimum Viable Product sets the wrong relationship with your potential customers. You want happy customers. You want customers jumping up and down telling their friends how great your product is. You want customers blown away by the tremendous value they get from you.
Minimum Viable Product says give the least customers will accept. Do the least you can get away with then clock out for the day. Apple certainly didn’t get more money than the US government by shovelling junk. If you want premium prices and hoards of fans you better give customers something insanely great. The bare minimum is what third world dictators drop for their poverty ridden suffering slaves. Paying customers have a choice and it isn’t the minimum. Customers want the best and will gladly pay to get it.
Customers Want Value Not Products
Another example of the backwards cult thinking of Minimum Viable Product is the word “product”. Customers don’t care about your product. Customers want the results. If they could get the results without any product that is exactly what they would do.
Customers eagerly pay for valuable results. The more value you can deliver the more money customers will pay and the happier they will be doing it.
I hate silly buzz words and acronyms because it over-simplifies a serious topic that requires some care and thought. If you need a buzz word I suggest this, Most Possible Value (MPV). That puts the focus on the correct things, delivering value.
Deliver the most value you can. What can you profitably deliver with the resources available? That is where most people stumble. They falsely believe they must build super expensive solutions. That leaves most entrepreneurs fearful and willing to cut corners and try to sneak the minimum past. Stop! Delivering value is much easier than building a product.
Remember, customers want value, they want the results. They don’t care how you deliver that value. A super expensive technology product is just one of a very long list of ways to make the results customers value and will pay you to get.
When you break out of the old thinking and focus on delivering value then you can see there are dozens of ways of achieving the real goal of profitably satisfying customers unmet desires.
If this got you thinking then please share it. If you want to join me delivering the Most Possible Value (MVP) then signup so I can tell you how I’m going to help everyone Make Value Happen.
Predictive Innovation Training
Predictive Innovation: Core Skills Book
RoundSquareTriangle.com