I started out as an engineer. Problem solving was my passion in life (and still is). And having an occupation involving programming provided a lot of problem solving opportunities. Later on, I moved into product ownership. The transition challenged me to new altitudes of perspective as it was suddenly more important finding the right problems to solve. The new level also required more communication, packaged up to be consumed by different audiences, on what a particular problem and solution actually meant to whom.
In my current occupation I am fortunate to meet many brilliant innovators and entrepreneurs who have similar drivers and backgrounds. They passionately talk about the problem - many times self-experienced - or about the technology and how it is the best newest innovation. I love their passion. I love their sense of urgency to solve problems. But a little too often, what is presented comes across as a technology presentation or a product pitch. There is a magnitude of altitude missing in how these entrepreneurs think about building a business and a company. This is an important perspective to realize - a different level of problem solving - that particularly first-time and technology-driven entrepreneurs seem to struggle with, and would benefit shifting their mind towards.
Building a business does not mean just solving a problem, but solving a problem that someone would actually pay to solve and that would increase in value overtime or as an organization or business grows. Moreover, one must consider how the problem is or isn't solved today and if the new way of solving the problem actually is enough to make decision-makers fight for changing budgets or replacing or augmenting existing solutions or workflows. Decision makers have fixed budgets to prioritize investments from and only have influential power for a few ‘political fights’ per year, in my experience. So the question always becomes: is this problem the most important to fight for?
Furthermore, enterprises can’t just rip out what is there overnight; how long will it actually take to realize value, deploy the technology, teach new skills necessary, align different departments in the organization if the solution touches many stakeholders? What does the sales cycle look like? What kind of sales support is required? Is there a plan for ease of enablement in place? How will the company scale over time? Will it be a people-heavy scale or can automation make scale exponential with time - how? What other markets can be acquired when the first market acquisition saturates? How will this business scale over years to penetrate beyond the original foot-in-the-door opportunity and innovation need? Is there a thought through strategy to get from not just from point A to B, but from A to B to C and beyond? What kind of culture have you set out to build? What kind of people will you need to attract to work aligned with this industry and mission? What skills, beyond your own, will need to be put in place? Do you have a plan on how to attract this specific talent? Where are they looking to grow over the next few years? Is your agenda aligned with future skill growth, industry motions and selling machinery? What is your end vision?
And 100 more questions of similar altitude. In conclusion of sorts, strategize how to build and scale a business and the organization to support it, not just a product and feature roadmap. Rather think: how will I set up a business and organization to conquer a market share over how will I solve this problem.
Anywho, I think you get the point. A simple framework I usually provide eager tech founders that seek to elevate boils down to five questions, each mapping to a finger on their hand:
Index finger: How will the company acquire new customers?
Middle finger: How will the company expand footprint, usage, and value with existing customers?
Ring finger: How will the company reduce customer churn?
Pinky: How will the company reduce the sales cycle and adoption and onboarding journey?
Last but not least, the thumb question, which is kind of orthogonal, just like its placement on the hand. This question has to do with culture and organizational scale: How is the team doing and what is needed to enable the next level of scale?
These are all quite high-level questions, but for each there is important continuous tracking that in my experience will help a company win. Every decision should somehow tie into one of these five dimensions. Especially the product roadmap and hiring plans!
Would you agree? What do you think a scale-up leadership team should focus on?