With the current economic standpoint and no sight of future improvement, creates a very unstable and uncertain economy for our country. But how and what can entrepreneurs do to create a sense of stability and direction within their own businesses?
Trying to predict or guess what is going to happen or providing solutions and strategic measures can both be wrong, time-consuming and can lead to a waste of your business's resources. One way of countering this is by following the Customer Development process, which to many is what they do at the beginning stages of a startup, but a process we believe should be continually followed especially during times of economic instability. The key is to adapt and evolve at all times to the change of the needs of your customer.
Facts can be found ‘outside the building’, where your customers and prospects live and work, so that’s where you need to go. Nothing is more fundamental to Customer Development, and nothing is harder to do. It’s much easier to sit in your think tank, have meetings and try and predict what your business should do, than it is to go out look for and listen to your current customer base and possibly find new ones.
In Customer Development, your team discovers firsthand experience about every angle, feeling and reaction your customer is having and most importantly how they are solving or not solving the instability (problem) that is happening around them and how it is affecting them. This will present your business with findings it can act on. By gathering feedback and learning from your customers you can then start to build, measure and learn from this process.
Your business is then able to pivot or irate accordingly based on validated learning. Your business won’t be acting out of heist or be reacting to uncertainty and the changes, but rather pro-actively acting on findings and the voice of your customers. Pivots are driven by the learnings and insight from a continuous stream of “pass/fail” tests you run throughout discovery and validation.
A business must remain agile and agile development refers to the rapid deployment, iterative development and continuous discovery processes businesses can use to overcome economic instability. The Customer Development process provides the continuous customer input to make agile work and provide your business with stability and the clearer direction it needs.
Jason Newmark
Jason is the Founder of The New Mark Group, Co-founder of Mompreneurs & Managing Director of Future Proof Western Cape. He is a winner of the award-winning Mnet show ‘Shark Tank’ and has over a dozen published articles and features regularly in entrepreneurial magazines, events, radio and podcasts.