One of the most exciting parts of running a business is bringing your product or service to life.
From the very first initial concept in your mind to the launch of your product or service, plus all of those processes in between which were laced with blood, sweat and tears, you have found yourself on a journey; a journey which will hopefully end with you being extremely proud.
Given what you have probably been through to get this far, taking the risk of putting responsibility in the hands of another might not always feel like the most intuitive thing to do.
However, it can be, and here are the reasons why:
– Firstly, accept that risk is a necessary factor of success. Once this happens, it is a lot easier to focus in on which are the wiliest risks to take. In other words, it becomes a whole lot easier to look into maximising opportunities in the marketplace because there is a large amount of market research and/or potential customer feedback.
You will also learn a lot about competitors’ strengths as well as their weaknesses and how to avoid the errors that others have made before you came along. You must accept you have to position your product or service in a risky environment – this is an absolute factor of the business world – but you have to do so in a way that doesn’t mean you are being led by just intuition or guess work.
– Secondly, you must believe that at the end of the day it is people who will deliver and that you can very much assist in all the processes that will enable this delivery. There are very few businesses in the world that are purely automated, so accept that early on and ensure that you have a rigorous recruitment process.
Next, you must ensure that you couple this recruitment process with communication of a long term vision for the business. Your team will respond well to growth aspirations and a long term vision will often encourage them to compete, work hard and try to carve out many of the better opportunities for themselves. Enabling a vision for your team will assist a sustainable approach for your product or service, ensuring that it does not fizzle out post launch.
– Finally, a concept which underpins both points of empowering your product through risk and people, and that is the law of parsimony, otherwise known as ‘Occam’s Razor’, which is to simply say ‘Keep it Simple’.
In other words, you must try to start at the simplest concept for your product or service and go from there. Only complicate it when it is absolutely necessary, which will not only nullify risks but assist in the lines of communication with your team. It will lead you to reasoning what is best for the product, such as considering concepts of mass market appeal and the consumers’ tastes, rather than ‘full steam ahead’ product development, which can result in an overcomplicated solution being taken to market.
In summary, putting your faith in taking a few risks and trusting people will ensure your product development process flows a lot smoother!