A STARTUP’S CONSISTENT POOR METRICS FROM EXPERIMENTS AND THE PERSISTENT FEELING THAT THE PRODUCT HAS NOT REALISED ITS FULL POTENTIAL ARE INDICATIONS THAT A STARTUP SHOULD START PLANNING FOR A PIVOT OR A CHANGE OF DIRECTION.
How to change business direction is a discipline that features prominently in the agenda of many companies intent on survival in the market place. A Startup willingly transcending its fears, especially the fear of negative public criticisms that often dampen the morale of its people, should not shy away from failure. This will enable it to garner appropriate feedback required to get up an acceptable product that would sustain its business. To be discriminatory to public criticisms and only sift out the right feedback connected to its customers who are actually engaging with its product, is the proper path to proactivity. Hence, how to change business direction, as a process, relies on the metrics or feedback from the customers.
A Startup’s consistent poor metrics from experiments and the persistent feeling that the product has not realised its full potential are indications that a Startup should start planning for a pivot or a change of business direction.
A pivot or persevere meeting should occupy its own space on a Startup’s schedule of activities. It should be a collaborative affair involving all arms of the company and even an external consultant to shine up some fresh perspectives over to their ideas. The metrics from their various product optimization efforts are compared against their predictions or expectations. The outcome from this exercise is viewed together with any additional feedback from their current and potential customers in order to ascertain whether to persevere or change direction of business.
Clear assumptions assist a Startup to sift through its gross metrics and isolate actionable metrics that would contribute to its learning. Thus, a learning organisation is agile and flexible to the demands of the customers. These traits ensure its survival over the long-term. To continue with, how to change business direction is a practice that turns on the preferences of the customers, not on wishful thinking.
