It’s never too late to sharpen the saw
#lovetheproblem
I start with entrepreneurs wherever they are in their journey, and I always start with a Lean Canvas. In a dozen interconnected questions an entrepreneur can get to the heart of the matter. This is much easier if it’s early in the idea formation stage because of the “sunk cost” trap. Founders are often so in love with their solution they make the fundamental error that kills new companies, they build solutions no one wants to buy. The Lean Canvas focuses on the customer problem that the customer will willingly “hire” your solution to solve. If you have not built your solution it’s easier to examine the customer problem question than if you have more time and money into it. The new entrepreneur wants to skip past all the planning and an entrepreneur a couple of years in can’t stop to take a perspective on their business because they are too busy. There is a necessary drive that powers entrepreneurs to make their idea succeed, but that drive can also be a trap of pushing a bad idea because the entrepreneur is so invested in it. It’s hard to think you began in the wrong direction at the start.
There’s an old story I use to illustrate this dilemma. There is a lumberjack in the woods sawing way. He’s grunting and sweating. The foreman comes along and watches him for a minute. The foreman says, “Why don’t you stop to sharpen your saw?” And the lumberjack says, “Can’t you see I’m too busy cutting down trees to stop what I’m doing?” It’s very hard to admit to yourself what’s not working because we have this little voice inside urging us on to work a little harder.
There is another reason it’s good to step back to the Lean Canvas and that’s to re-focus on the Unique Value Proposition (UVP) and the Customer Problem(s). About 20% of your customers are fully engaged in your business, that is, they can’t imagine a world without your solution in it. Then there is 60% of your audience that will come back to you if there’s not something better around, in diminishing loyalty from people closest to the top 20%, down to the bottom 20%. Then there is 20% at the bottom who are haters. They will not ever do business with you because of some reason. So where is the first place you need to go to expand your audience? It’s in the top of that 60% that is closest to the engaged customers. These are the people in closest alignment to your UVP. Where are we most likely to go looking to get more customers emotionally? In the Bottom 20%. We know we can win them over if we just fix a few things. So we respond to their comments and we shift processes or times, or what we charge. And how many of those bottom 20% are we going to win? And if we do move them, they go into the bottom of the 60% that will only give us a look if nothing else is available. In the mean time you have eroded your UVP for the top 20%, and they fall into “I really liked this product, but it has slid in the last little while, so maybe I’ll look around”.
If you have a good system for getting customer feedback about the problems customers are encountering in your area of expertise, you can find the common story threads to hone your customer problem set to see if there is good problem/solution fit. Whether you are starting your business or are a couple years in, you can shed that light on your value proposition to see if your solution makes sense. People’s needs change, but you can’t abandon the people who love your business to satisfy the haters. If you are just starting, this is where you will get your first customers. There are plenty of examples showing you don’t need a product to get sales if you’ve defined your early adopters correctly.
None of this pivot on innovation can take place if you can’t look that the basic rationale behind your business, modeled in the Lean Canvas. That basic rationale and mindset comes from what I teach you early on, stay in love with the problem and the business model is the business. Never be afraid to look at your business with new eyes. I guarantee your competitors are.