The Point Of Pivoting

Pivoting an idea is often one of the most important things you have to do as an entrepreneur. Even though you may think your startup idea is perfect in every way, it’s not. Naturally, ideas and startups have to evolve and develop as time goes on. You may encounter competitors or find out about unavoidable legal issues. You may discover that your idea has already been done by someone else (this happens annoyingly often) or even just receive critical feedback from friends. A key lesson from my experience was how to get over that defensive feeling when someone criticises or gives feedback on your startup. It may feel like an insult but you have to drop those feelings of ownership and open up your mind to new ideas. The best thing about receiving feedback is that it tests all aspects of the business and brings everything into question since you will often unknowingly overlook a critical flaw which could potentially jeopardise your business later down the line. Something all entrepreneurs agree on is that it’s much better to know about issues earlier than later. Sometimes pivoting your idea could be just tweaking a few minor details like the UI or UX. Sometimes pivoting can mean changing the entire core of an idea possibly because you've found out your original way won't work or that you've seen a better way of doing it through feedback and hearing other people's thoughts. With my startup TX I initially found it difficult to listen to negative feedback because I was too stuck in my way of doing things. Luckily with a good group of friends who helped discuss fully the pros and cons of the current method and identify alternative versions I was able to pivot the idea in a major way. I went from an over-complex and inefficient method of matching buyers and sellers together to a much simpler and quicker way. This change at the time felt massive, but as time passed I could see the benefits of the shift and the value from pivoting. So after my experience with TX, I really recommend asking as many people as possible for feedback on the full idea or parts of the idea. This seems simple but a lot of people don’t do it and/or don’t do it the right way. I think the most important thing is to never say that it's your idea as they're then more likely to be nice (and untruthful!). Say it's a friend's idea which you're testing. Probe them fully for issues and also potential opportunities like what feature they would want to see. Never get personal, and never ignore what the recurring themes are; if 9/10 people don't like a certain feature then there's probably a reason for it! Finally, it’s essential not to be scared to defend your idea either; you know it better than anyone and shouldn’t be influenced purely by others, but that said don’t defend it too much that you overlook the weaknesses.

#Pivoting #OpenMinded #Feedback #Testing