This sounds so cliché and regular but is as accurate as ever. In recent times, more people seem to have great ideas which come in form of a service or product. Clever ideas are always nice to have and most times applauded by the listeners but if it lacks the potential of solving a need then it’s just mere storytelling.
Good business starts with a good idea. The word ‘idea’ has stirred dozens of young optimistic entrepreneurs into thinking it comes with a promise of instant success, luxurious living and expensive getaways. It is read through this mathematical representation below:
1 Good Idea + Inexplicable Hard Work = Living the Luxury Entrepreneur Life!
Tragic isn’t it? There is yet another deceptive school-of-thought as it pertains to entrepreneurship. Some startups believe that a great idea will automatically become a great business and generate millions of cash. Just because one good business began on the springboard of a great idea doesn’t mean that’s all it needed to thrive. Countless businesses have been created from great ideas only to collapse for lack of innovation, fall victim to competitors or fail to gain any market share. A good idea has the prospect of generating a viable revenue in return but development, proper research and on-going innovation has to be explored.
Carefully putting it, don’t open a bakery just because you love baking cakes. Ask yourself if it’s a hobby or a business which you’d like to venture into. Contrary to some beliefs, there are no grey areas in building a solid business. So, question that idea or passion. If you love baking, would you succeed working for someone else or journeying out on your own? The moment you start a bakery without proper guidelines of whats and whats-not, you will discover that there’s a lot more to a bakery business than German Chocolate and Red Velvet.
I will share some elemental questions you could ask yourself which will help shape your ideation process.
Will My Idea Help A Customer Get A Job Done?
Job defines the things your potential customers are trying to get done in their work or life. A customer job could be the task they are trying to perform and complete; the problem they are trying to solve or the needs they would like to satisfy. Always take the side of the customers when learning on how your idea can get their job(s) done.
What you assume as an important job from your perspective as the ideator may not be that which the customers are trying to get done or bring about their satisfaction. Sometimes, budding entrepreneurs so assume they know what customers want that they fail to test their ideas, thinking they can do without investing in experimenting. In fact, the ‘smarter’ and more ‘experienced’ they appear, the more likely they believe they are always right.
Why is Value Important?
Value is the benefit a customer gets in exchange for the price he/she pays. It is possible to have a great idea that isn’t offering any value in an existing market. Remarkably, few entrepreneurs are able to answer the questions of their customers’ wants and what value [their] products, service or idea features will create for them.
The ability to communicate the value of an idea to a customer is the most important aspect of idea development. Also, note that the value of your product/services is the experience your customer gets [from your value proposition] long after the exchange of cash.
Steve Jobs made the following statement during the 1997 Worldwide Developers Conference:
“You have got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology…I’ve made this mistake probably more than anybody else in this room…As we have tried to come up with a strategy and a vision for Apple, it started with ‘What incredible benefits can we give to the customer? Where can we take the customer?”
I believe that’s the right path to take as Steve also added, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” It isn’t enough to show potential customers but to pay apt attention to what they say and watch how your value propositions are being used or interpreted. Steve believed that great products come from melding two points of view—the technology point of view and the customer point of view. These two points are dependent on each other.
As you ponder on how you can create great customer experience with your idea also identify its unique value.
Divine Beneth
divine.beneth@gmail.com
