Around The Web In A Day

For the last weeks, we’ve been thinking about the software we’re working on, and the different target markets we may be able to tackle. We found many kind of companies to sell it too, many organizations that would need it, many different ways to use it. Each time, it was a joy to find a different outlet, because it meant that we had a HUGE potential ahead

When you start a new venture, it may seem like a real boon to have lots of opportunities for your product. It may be exciting for you to discover all these possibilities. You can sell to many people, add options, think to extensions, approach new markets. Great !!! Well, it’s not so great...In fact, each single possibility is a straw, and you’re effectively building a haystack !

The more time you spend on fueling your imagination with the weirdest possibilities, the more work you’ll have to do later.

You’ll know that after a few presentation to your friends or associates. At the beginning, they understand what your project is about, even if it’s still a concept. After a while, you begin to realize that your presentation is stale : it has lost its former appeal because it is swarming with possibilities, and your audience gets confused. What do you exactly want to do ? How will you choose which way to go ? These are some of the questions that you see in their eyes, and I tell you, it is not a good show, and it’s high time to stop adding possibilities.

From now on, your job will be to remove most of the straws you’ve added to the haystack, until you find “The Needle” : the one and only stand that will make everyone clearly understand the benefits of your offer and your first customers sign-up.

As we are going through this process, I can tell you it’s a tricky part ! In order to get to The Needle, you can use dichotomy : make a choice, simplify, make a choice, simplify, make a choice and simplify again. This way, you can slowly resolve complexities, and find yourself more confortable with your project presentation…

When do you know that you have found The Needle ? Well, when you can pierce through any counter argument. When you know your competition and challenges by heart and still be proud of what you say and confident in what you do. At that time, you know you have the right stuff, the hammer that will get you inside the right spot of the market.

Until then, don’t invest to much in your project : don’t write baselines, don’t buy logo designs, don’t write lengthy business plans, don’t query feedback or money yet, because you don’t know if you have the right tool in your hand, and any effort could be wasted.

Carving out possibilities doesn’t mean throwing them to the trash. Like Geoffrey Moore said in “Crossing the Chasm” (a must-read), you have to find your “beachhead”, the spot where you’ll land your attack of the market. When you’ll have successfully invaded this spot, you may find that some discarded possibilities have the potential to get you further in the mainland, meaning extending your reach within your target market.

One day, you will launch all of your great ideas. But it will never happen unless you first find the Needle in your Haystack.