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Brains Around the Table

I recently attended Garage.com's boot camp for startups in Chicago. Wow! Guy Kawasaki is a great speaker--very inspiring! The Garage folks did a great job with format, content and drawing upon relevant local talent. That said I was greatly disappointed at the absence of focus on customers and end users. The message was that VCs are investing in numbers, teams, market leading business concepts and technology. The message from the Garage folks was that entrepreneurs rule and that they are the only way to get innovation done.

I agree that it's not possible to ask customers for the answers when looking for the next innovation. The argument continues to be the "brains around the table" approach is the only thing that works. It's not! There is another way and it's better. You start with a group of smart people but instead of sitting around the table these people are immersing themselves in the lives of customers and end-users. They can identify opportunities for innovation based on unmet need and patterns of human behavior. Follow that with a user-centered design process that utilizes actual customers to test and validate concepts from start to launch and the result is an innovation that is far more likely to be adopted and succeed at launch. Yes technology, team, execution and market size are critical but these things alone at their best, may allow for the development of a REALLY great product that no one wants, needs or adopts.

Consumers are screaming for products and services that they can actually understand and use. Countless startups begin with a market opportunity validated by focus groups, a great management team, great technology, great execution, lots of funding and then they're out of business in 9 months because they didn't understand how their customers did business. They didn't understand their mental model, the context of their complicated lives and they didn't understand their real wants and needs.

When I ask my children if they want a treat they always answer yes. Sometimes I find the treat stuffed under a sofa cushion when they didn't like it and other times they gobble it up when they love it…but they never say no. I can think of multiple examples where tens of millions were invested in startup concepts with no more validation than a series of focus groups asking the question: if we apply this technology to your industry will you use it? No consideration was given to things like, these people have been doing business face to face for decades. They're accustomed doing deals on the backs of napkins with people they know and trust. Can you say stuffed under the sofa cushion?

One of the flaws of the entrepreneur model is that they are often driven by technology. Combine this drive with the misconception that they (the entrepreneurs) are the potential customers or that they "know" the customers already and you have a high risk proposition coming out of the gate. Entrepreneurs are great, I am one, and I greatly appreciate and respect my peers and colleagues. I will say this, sometimes I refer to entrepreneurs and startup management teams as sled dogs. They get hitched up to an idea and they will pull until they can't pull anymore. Anyone that has experienced the challenges of starting a venture knows that without this drive success will not come.