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I think there's a property which is hard to describe. But i've seen the opposite property countless times at companies. People, and leaders who are building "
by swalsh 2y ago
I think there's a property which is hard to describe. But i've seen the opposite property countless times at companies. People, and leaders who are building "cool demos". Things that tell a great story, but somehow never materialize into any material revenue for the company. I've seen these guys move up into higher and higher positions, and yet the projects they build are simply great stories. The higher up the org you go, you'll find leaders who have refined this expertise into a really compelling, really easy to follow along story. But it just never materializes into revenue, and half the time it doesn't even materialie into a real product.
I think what founders know, but what managers do not, is the formula. They're missing one of the key components. The perspective of your customer (what their business is, and the understanding of what is and what isn't important to them), and an understanding of how to deliver it (what capabilities does your customer have, how do they like to do business), and finally a perspective on how to deliver that value (an expertise in product).
Many people are experts at "delivering" or they're experts at understanding their customers PoV, or they're experts at understanding how to do business with those customers. VERY FEW "professionals" have all 3... but you can tell a great story to other non-experts using only 2 of the points, and making up a reasonable sounding point for #3. Or worse, they become experts on selling to YOU (the founder) how to do these things.
- mrwww 2y agoI have done the building in quite a few of these. Often what happens is that the engineering that made it a cool demo in the beginning, is pushed aside, and once funding and a variety of product managers and sales people start chiming in, users and genuine value proposition is forgotten in favor of things that sound huge for the business, in theory. Not seen it materialize in practice yet.
- swalsh 2y agoYeah, the opportunist managers are attracted to fresh value like sharks to blood. They always destroy it because they're trying to add in something that's good for their business (great story for upper management) but is either not wanted or even repulsive to the customer. It usually comes at the expense of the core value proposition.
- bengale 2y ago> People, and leaders who are building "cool demos". Things that tell a great story, but somehow never materialize into any material revenue for the company. It takes experience to see something awesome, and still drill into who asked for it, what problem is it solving, what value is it generating for the end user, etc. It's easy to forget that sometimes even something super cool is not that useful and when the rubber hits the road, no-one will pay for it.