Pursue Your Dream Business with Trustworthy Innovation and Purpose Driven Growth

F.I.T. FUTURE STRATEGY FOR YOUR DREAM BUSINESS

2 Things Startups Need to Grow

Startups need trustworthy innovation followed by efficient marketing. Trustworthy innovation is more than a strategy or tactic. It’s a process.

Trustworthy Innovation Process for Your Dream Business

A trustworthy innovation process pulls together what customers deem valuable [their needs] on one hand and the job they are trying to do on the other, tying them together without missing a step. It’s a secure process because customers know their needs and that those needs can actually be discovered.

Solutions that Fit

So it’s worth putting a lot of effort into discovering what those needs are before thinking through solutions that fit them because the needs themselves dictate solutions that fit. Imagine if shoe manufacturers in Japan had no solutions other than to lace up their shoes tightly each time they were put back on. Stretchy laces or no laces at all are better solutions in Japan because you want to minimize the time it takes to put on a shoe as you take them off a lot.

Needs First vs Ideas First

A needs first approach is a very different way to manage innovation than starting with our ideas. When we start the innovation process with our ideas, we are encouraged to “fail fast” in order to find product/market fit. That’s problematic because the odds of landing on one idea that fits all of our customers needs in a way that they see a 20% bump in how well they’re currently getting the job done is extremely low.

Missing our way is easy to do when we start with the traditional “ideas first” approach to innovation. Pursuing trustworthy innovation unties the knot that results when innovation and solutions (product/service) get tangled up.

Discover Your Dream Business and Avoid Startup Death

Developing products and services for our dream business must be efficient because our resources are limited when running after our dream business. The cost of trying one idea after another creates unwanted product / service iterations. Consequently, even those with all the money in the world can’t buy back wasted time. Therefore, reworking our products and services isn’t just expensive–it’s startup death!

Breathing In Profitable Sales

We dig an early grave for our newborn startup if we don't give it a chance to breathe in profitable sales. A trustworthy innovation process is like the precise pat the doctor gives a baby's bottom to start them breathing on their own. But, more than breathing room, our startups need profitable sales circulating lifeblood to our companies. The fastest pathway to product-market fit is to avoid having to waste a lot of effort. We'd rather not waste resources making lots of iterations and pivots before making any sales.

Knowledge Comes from a Trustworthy Process

Instead, we want to know as many of our customer's needs as possible before we start thinking about what solution(s) meet those needs. There could be between 50 to 150 needs per step they take toward achieving their goal. But, following a process is challenging because that means we're doing the hard work of discovering our customers' needs upfront before devising a solution(s) that meets those needs. It means doing the right things first so that you can do things right down the road.

A trustworthy innovation process provides:

• FREEDOM from fuzzy front end innovation–resulting in expensive product iterations
• FORESIGHT to create our value proposition based on actual customer needs that results in efficient marketing

Work Works

Efficiencies resulting from a trustworthy process set up sales. But, that work requires front end innovation efforts that not everyone is willing to make.

It's a lot easier to follow the latest guru's experience "guaranteed" to work for everyone, until it doesn't. The bible says as a general principle:

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."

Proverb 14:23

God's goodness has given us freedom to run after our dream business. By his grace, we can do this without boasting in what tomorrow holds, because we are held by Jesus and he holds tomorrow. We can put in the necessary work because He gives us time to do the right things first. But where do we focus that hard work to see trustworthy results?

Masquerade Party of Dancing IDEAS

We focus on discovering customer needs. But, that is not like running into a fantastical party of dancing ideas and falling for that one dance partner that feels so right, only to turn away when your creative idea is unmasked and it just won't work out.

We don't need to accept vague definitions of what a need is only to switch dance partners mid song when we hear something that tickles our ears. Instead, doing the right things first means managing and controlling the process, rather than guessing at it and revisiting it ad nauseam. This is important because a solution needs to do things about 20% better, meaning reducing price or helping customers get their job done that much faster.

Chasing After Fantasies is Dizzying

Our own ideas can easily spin up fantasies that seem worthy of our time, but just as a mirage carries no substance, we need to discover customer needs first so that we can develop the right solutions later on.

Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.

Proverbs 12:11

Innovation Done Right for Your Dream Business Starts with Customers' Needs

Innovation and product development must be separated to be done right. Too often they are awkwardly combined causing startups to stumble. They can even walk around like a zombie startup. This leads to inefficient and excessive iterations and pivots that waste time and resources.

Understanding customer needs first is the foundation for successful innovation. By focusing on customer needs from the start, you can create solutions that matter. Innovation should be a trustworthy process. We can work that process together in a committed community of entrepreneurs called Friends I Trust.