An entrepreneur is one who takes the risk of initiating, organizing and managing to develop a product to get profits in return. They incline to be good at identifying good business opportunities and frequently demonstrate positive biases in their acuity. This pro-risk taking attitude encourages them to exploit new opportunities.
There is an extensive rumbling, relatively stimulating debate about the concept of “nurture vs. nature” as it transmits to people and their capabilities. “Trading Places”, the Eddie Murphy film was essentially grounded on it. It revolved around the bet if he could learn merchandises trade without being born a blue blood.
People frequently ask if entrepreneurs are made or born. However, my experience suggests that entrepreneur is a risk-taking spirit that cannot be created, an entrepreneur is born. Now the question arises “Why?” This is because; a good entrepreneur is never satisfied with the current situation. He wants a change, no matter big or small.
The Telegraph mentions that a record 80 new companies were founded in an hour in 2016. This shows that more and more people are starting their own businesses and becoming entrepreneurs.
An entrepreneur is one who is unwilling to give up because they work tirelessly to enhance their product and the company’s image and product quality. This is not unduly perplexing. In fact, the tactic is somewhat easy.
Here are five simple product development lessons all entrepreneurs must not forget.
1. Firstly, Be Very Clear That It Is Difficult To Raise Finance for Product Development- Ashish Advani
The first thing that entrepreneurs need to keep in mind is that gathering investment is ambiguous and a time-consuming process. It takes a lot of time to convince venture capitalist or angel investor to finance your product. So you must prepare a feasibility report in a way that clearly states your product quality, marketability and product life. For this, you are required to anticipate the hurdles and delays.
Always try to create a very realistic feasibility report that actually tempts the investor to put his money at risk. Other than that, never waste your precious time after a venture capital investor to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) so they will not use your idea for their own selves. It not productive at all and your investments will decrease. Investors are also reluctant to sign it anyway.
2. Concentrate on the Development of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)- By Eric Ries
Eric Ries mentions in his book, “The Lean Startup” that entrepreneurs frequently concentrate on creating the finest possible product while creating an MVP. At the moment, that may sound contrary to intuition to some people. However, you must ask it from your own self that about the least amount of functionality that is needed to test the viability while carrying a product to completion.
Minimum Viable Product is less ambiguous than you think it is, and you can build it for yourself without requiring huge amounts of investment. A fully developed application was launched in the case of Laughly when a simple comedy media player could have been propelled at the beginning.
So, you are advised to take baby steps in the beginning. Entrepreneurs have a constant fear of taking more burden than their actual capacity and become with the techniques of transferring your idea into reality. You must focus on proving that your idea offers value to a minimally viable product. Then put your concentration on expanding and improving, in that time period.
3. Find Blockages In Your Operational Process- Eliyahu Galdratt
Eliyahu Goldratt mentions in his book titled “The Goal” that every operating system has a bottleneck. Entrepreneurs are obviously hard-wired to discover the fix. Regardless the nature of the task, entrepreneurs are always spectating for blockages.
4. Do not Take Forever to Launch – John Schneider
He mentions in his article, “Why Most Product Launches Fail?” that you must come up with a unique product to stand out from rest of the competition in the market. It has to be distinguished in some important and meaningful way from your competitors.
As we are in the software development industry in which everything changes rapidly. So, you are advised not to take too long for launching a product. Otherwise, you will be late. Someone else might come up with the better product idea in the meantime. Or, the technology being utilized by you has become obsolete. Sometimes, the need for that product vanishes or squeezes from the market.
In short, do not take so much time that the technology becomes obsolete, someone comes up with the better idea or the demand vanishes from the market.
5. Remember That You Are Not a Customer – Bob London
There is a misconception in the market that the entrepreneur knows what the customer wants. However, for this purpose, an entrepreneur must put himself in customer shoes. Even this cannot guarantee the success of your product. This is because you consider you identifying what an end customer wants do not every time mean they will use the product in the way you intended. Everyone has different experiences. So, you cannot only depend on your own experiences when developing a product. It is a simple indication but ignored by entrepreneurs.
People learn this lesson the hard way. In the starting, entrepreneurs have a tendency to get frustrated when 100 people download the app but only 50 people actually use it. It is difficult to admit this thing in the beginning. But, after some time, he starts thinking about his mistakes and then begins to put himself in customer’s shoes.
Sometimes, their ego is one of the major hurdles when it comes to product development; consequently, it is significant to vigorously exercise getting out of your own head and into the attitude of your customers.
Conclusion
After viewing these product development lessons, the entrepreneur must keep in his mind that it is difficult to raise. For this reason, a proper feasibility report must be presented to the investor. Then there must be full concentration on the development of the minimum viable product, as it requires less finance.
Then you must work on identifying the operational bottleneck and then take steps to eliminate those bottlenecks. This will ensure operational efficiency.
Furthermore, remember not to take so much time that the technology becomes obsolete, someone comes up with the better idea or the demand vanishes from the market. The last but not the least: put yourself in customer’s shoes before taking the final decision.
