W henever I speak to any company founder, I hardly meet anyone who is not excited about the product, which they are building. It is so common to love your idea. You get attached to it just like your baby. You know that you have to nurture it before it gets the right shape to attract the mass. It’s also very inspiring to think about how the world is going to love your idea when it gets viral.
And here starts the toughest part
It doesn’t take much longer to realize that people are not perceiving your idea as good as you had done. Suddenly the value proposition starts to fade and you wonder what’s going wrong. Either it could be regulations, scalability, operations, usability or even technical complexity – but somehow it starts showing that the path forward is going to be super tough. A common reaction to this challenge is – Perseverance. Let’s keep doing it. But does it really pays off all the time?
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Perseverance is a medicine known to every founder and taught in every MBA class for a success in the longer terms. We all agree with this. But what if it is same as being stubborn? What if it is lack of decision-making and understanding of the market-shift wherein things have changed drastically. And what if it has been a complete lack of knowledge of the business domain?
You need to make sure that perseverance is employed in the right direction so look out for these Blindspots:
Are customers facing difficulties in understanding your product? (#ComplexProductBlindspot)
Do not assume that what you are building is so abstract that it will take time for people to get a hang of it. A good validation of this is to let the customer rephrase what they understood. This is the tricky part because you listen a very simplified version, which you don’t prefer because it undermines so much hard work.
When you explain the product, a customer comprehends it within the scope of the problems-at-hand. And when (s)he rephrases it, it is a pure depiction of what the customer truly wants.
Ignoring the interpretation of the customer creates so much risk of drifting away from the market. Another indicator is also that if you are correcting the customer’s understanding too many times, it is a blindspot that you are not building what the customer truly wants.
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Are you scared of pursuing other options? (#DesperateBidBlindSpot)
Sometimes a new thing comes up as a result of an escapism route. You start a new venture because you wanted to escape your environment. The change looks so refreshing that when it gets materialised, it looks so scary to go back if it doesn’t work out.
Perseverance requires an undistracted focus to achieve something. But if you continue to discard everything else as a distraction, it also creates a rigid-thinking which is not conducive to the productive result.
Do you think that your ego is driving the decision? (#EgoDrivingBlindSpot)
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