The archetypal notion of a great start-up concept is that Eureka moment, when someone suddenly cracks the next big thing whilst singing in the shower or staring at the sky. But is that really true? The truth is that the vast majority of Eureka start-ups don’t even make it out the gate.
One of the key reasons for this is that because relying on a Eureka moment alone can be a very precarious path to follow on the rocky start-up road. You may think you have stumbled upon a great idea, but have you really identified a need? Are you really solving a problem that people need solved, and will rush to use your product in order to solve it? In other words, are you satisfying customer needs? The only sure way of finding that out before spending tons of money on a product nobody will use is to embark on some in-depth customer research.
Andy Sack made brief mention of this in his blog, and the link to Jay Haynes' article is worth a quick read.
As I climb the steep learning curve here in Silicon Valley, I’ve learned that solid and deep customer research which is done correctly from the beginning will stand you in good stead in so many areas of your business, from understanding customers’ needs, to market positioning, to web-design and UX, to product management, and the list goes on.
Although it may seem like a steep upfront cost in the early days of your young company, it will save you heaps of money over the longer term.
Eureka
The archetypal notion of a great start-up concept is that Eureka moment, when someone suddenly cracks the next big thing whilst singing in the shower or staring at the sky. But is that really true? The truth is that the vast majority of Eureka start-ups don’t even make it out the gate.
One of the key reasons for this is that because relying on a Eureka moment alone can be a very precarious path to follow on the rocky start-up road. You may think you have stumbled upon a great idea, but have you really identified a need? Are you really solving a problem that people need solved, and will rush to use your product in order to solve it? In other words, are you satisfying customer needs? The only sure way of finding that out before spending tons of money on a product nobody will use is to embark on some in-depth customer research.
Andy Sack made brief mention of this in his blog, and the link to Jay Haynes' article is worth a quick read.
As I climb the steep learning curve here in Silicon Valley, I’ve learned that solid and deep customer research which is done correctly from the beginning will stand you in good stead in so many areas of your business, from understanding customers’ needs, to market positioning, to web-design and UX, to product management, and the list goes on.
Although it may seem like a steep upfront cost in the early days of your young company, it will save you heaps of money over the longer term.
I recently moved from South Africa to Silicon Valley, where I am involved in high-tech. On this blog I share some news and views on living and working in the fabled Valley.
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