I'm about to launch a new startup and I have no clue what's going to happen. I've done my homework. I'm prepping everything in my arsenal to get the word out, without overdoing it. I'm hoping that the social/viral components are intuitive, easy to use, and will help grow the site. I'm going to get out there every day and tell people about it. I'm going to listen to our users and try to make their experience better. I'm going to measure, measure, measure. But in reality, I have no clue what's going to happen.
People, companies, b-school professors, etc. talk a lot about the "product life cycle." In fact, writing on the topic for a class in my executive MBA is what sparked the idea for this post.
So... introduce your product, grow and develop your market, grow like gangbusters, crest the wave as your product matures, and then crash! This couldn't be further from the truth, in my opinion.
Rollercoaster of Dreams
Launching a product may feel like a rollercoaster, but the product life cycle is not life rolling up a rollercoaster forged from steel. There are no rails holding you to the towering infrastructure below. There are no cars on tracks, here folks. No matter how well you plan, strategize, forecast, spend... you cannot precisely predict anything. You can only react. Certainly, having a thoroughly conceived business and marketing plan is crucial. You have to chart your course as best you can. But, and this is especially true in the Web 2.0 era, everyone has myopia. You can see the road two feet ahead, but looking down the road everything is a blur.
The Great Big Balloon Ride
Launching a new product is more like launching a hot-air balloon (I'm really going to do my best to avoid the balloon boy references). You release the tie down and you have no earthly idea what is going to happen. Sure, you pump the hot air to raise higher and higher. You measure your trajectory as often as possible. You look for landmarks or other balloons to say "hey, we've made it past X." Or, "there's where we want to be! Steer!"
But in reality you're in a friggin' basket hanging under a giant pillowcase floating hundreds of feet in the air.
You could run out of gas (cash), you could spring a leak (faulty manufacturing/development), the wind could blow you astray (marketing miscues) or another balloon could be more well equipped and just pass you by.
So what do you do? You have to stay hyper vigilant. Make a plan and stay the course, but always be mindful of your coordinates and be willing to adjust course. Making a lot of minor tweaks to your heading will get you closer faster to your end goal than huge, sweeping redirects.
Don't let the balloon just take you, because you won't end up where you wanted to be.
So... introduce your product, grow and develop your market, grow like gangbusters, crest the wave as your product matures, and then crash! This couldn't be further from the truth, in my opinion.
Rollercoaster of Dreams
Launching a product may feel like a rollercoaster, but the product life cycle is not life rolling up a rollercoaster forged from steel. There are no rails holding you to the towering infrastructure below. There are no cars on tracks, here folks. No matter how well you plan, strategize, forecast, spend... you cannot precisely predict anything. You can only react. Certainly, having a thoroughly conceived business and marketing plan is crucial. You have to chart your course as best you can. But, and this is especially true in the Web 2.0 era, everyone has myopia. You can see the road two feet ahead, but looking down the road everything is a blur.
The Great Big Balloon Ride
Launching a new product is more like launching a hot-air balloon (I'm really going to do my best to avoid the balloon boy references). You release the tie down and you have no earthly idea what is going to happen. Sure, you pump the hot air to raise higher and higher. You measure your trajectory as often as possible. You look for landmarks or other balloons to say "hey, we've made it past X." Or, "there's where we want to be! Steer!"
But in reality you're in a friggin' basket hanging under a giant pillowcase floating hundreds of feet in the air.
You could run out of gas (cash), you could spring a leak (faulty manufacturing/development), the wind could blow you astray (marketing miscues) or another balloon could be more well equipped and just pass you by.
So what do you do? You have to stay hyper vigilant. Make a plan and stay the course, but always be mindful of your coordinates and be willing to adjust course. Making a lot of minor tweaks to your heading will get you closer faster to your end goal than huge, sweeping redirects.
Don't let the balloon just take you, because you won't end up where you wanted to be.
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