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Why Your “Better Mousetrap” Isn’t Selling (And What To Do About It)
You've built something demonstrably better, yet sales cycles drag on forever and enthusiastic prospects go dark. The problem isn't your product—it's that you're underestimating the single biggest obstacle between you and revenue: human beings really don't like change.
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So Many Ideas, So Little Time!
Guiding product development is a critically important part of startup success! Innovative products are novel solutions to painful customer problems, yet every existing customer and potential prospect has a unique perspective on what would make the best solution. Sifting through feedback and deciding what to invest in is crucial to building value cost-effectively.
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Business Founders Must Lead as Product Managers/Solution Architects
The title “Solution Architect” is a specific position in the IT hierarchy of a larger organization. Yet, in the context of a smaller organization, often early-stage startup, the role of a solution architect and related product manager is often at least partially filled by the founder and startup business leader. Here are some reflections on what I have learned about…
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Discerning Signals in the Noise
Startup leaders must discern critical signals from noise to navigate and innovate effectively in a chaotic environment, utilizing data and customer insights.
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Keys to Customer Discovery
When you venture forth as an entrepreneur, exploring new innovative territory that you want to build into a business, it is crucial to validate that your product concept resonates with your target customers. That is the essential function of early customer discovery.
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IP Licensing for a Spinout Startup
One way to begin a new entrepreneurial adventure is to find some attractive intellectual property and license it as the foundation of a new startup. Here are some of my lessons learned for such a path.
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Startup Patent Strategy
Patent strategy for startups is complicated and nuanced, yet it can be the essence of creating protected assets that can ultimately be transferred to other organizations. Being smart and intentional up front is essential to generating such value for a startup.
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The Preeminence of the Customers’ Problem
Immerse yourself in your customer’s problem. The urgent and important problem IS the opportunity. Don’t build a solution looking for a problem.
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Applying the Least Work Principle
Developing a great, user-friendly, innovative product is often the heart of building a successful high-potential startup. But, as the team blazes new trails, they must successfully sift through user feedback to nail the design. The Least Work Principle is one of my tools for interpreting what users mean instead of just what they seem to be saying.
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Evaluating Markets Before Founding
Analyzing your potential market and testing concepts with potential customers are critical steps in deciding whether you have the ingredients for a potentially successful startup.
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You Can’t Crash if You Don’t Launch
Iterative product development is at the heart of many a startup founded on technological innovation as its core value driver. Lessons learned from earlier iterations (failures) inform the next prototype until the problems are solved, and requirements are met. Yet until you have lived this process, most startup stories only share the highlight reel of the successful tests, making it…
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The Risk of Idea Stealing
Inexperienced entrepreneurs often worry about sharing what they are working on with others, fearing someone will steal their idea. While there are a few circumstances one should be cautious about, generally, it is far riskier not to share.
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The FDA Are People, Too.
Government agencies seem like monolithic entities governed by complex rules that are hard to relate to. Still, under that seemingly impenetrable exterior, it helps to remember that, just like your startup, the agency is made up of people, too.
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Effectively Engaging the FDA
Some vital resources and lessons learned along our software-as-a-medical device FDA journey may help others who are finding their own pathways to market with a regulated product. While these ideas are focused on the FDA, they have broader applicability to working with other regulatory bodies as well.
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Products Are For People
The key to designing desirable products is listening, empathizing, creativity, and perseverance. The key to a successful startup is a great product that your customers love.
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Customer Discovery #2: What a Positive Response Looks Like
When asking for feedback on a product concept, it is easy to be fooled. Make sure you know the kind of reaction you need to hear to know you have a potential winner.
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Customer Discovery #1: n>1
Talk to many potential customers when seeking to validate an unmet need.
