3 ms·

To be fair, in your kid example, the kid IS feeling a pain NOW: low confidence, and muscles will help him build that. I think anything forward looking is seeki

To be fair, in your kid example, the kid IS feeling a pain NOW: low confidence, and muscles will help him build that. I think anything forward looking is seeking to solve: 1) things that are painful now but current execution on technology isn't optimized. Either you combine existing technology in new ways or develop new technology. 2) things that will be painful in future. For example, we're building drones to help with the pain and cost of shipping physical goods. Someone is going to develop software to manage those drones, someone is going to develop expertise in drone laws, etc. All pains that don't exist today because drones aren't widespread enough yet.

mindcrime 13y ago
To be fair, in your kid example, the kid IS feeling a pain NOW: low confidence, and muscles will help him build that. Well, yeah, to some degree you can usually (always?) fiddle with definitions and find a way to position a "vitamin" as "painkiller". That's actually an important point in it's own right. If nothing else, it illustrates that the vitamin/painkiller dichotomy might not be intrinsic, and may be mostly about messaging / positioning. The book Mastering The Complex Sale by Jeff Thull has an interesting little tidbit there about some processing room anti-corrosion stuff made by, IIRC, Shell. There was some sample dialogue about the stuff to illustrate this point: Person A: What's the business value of the anti-corrosion stuff? Salesman: Business value? Well, it doesn't generate revenue or cut costs. I don't know how you'd talk about it's business value. Person A: What happens if a refinery doesn't use this stuff? Salesman: Well, corrosion builds up and will eventually cause a leak that could result in a fire or an explosion. Point-of-view counts for a lot.

3 ms·

To be fair, in your kid example, the kid IS feeling a pain NOW: low confidence, and muscles will help him build that. I think anything forward looking is seeki

by xivzgrev 13y ago

mindcrime 13y ago
To be fair, in your kid example, the kid IS feeling a pain NOW: low confidence, and muscles will help him build that. Well, yeah, to some degree you can usually (always?) fiddle with definitions and find a way to position a "vitamin" as "painkiller". That's actually an important point in it's own right. If nothing else, it illustrates that the vitamin/painkiller dichotomy might not be intrinsic, and may be mostly about messaging / positioning. The book Mastering The Complex Sale by Jeff Thull has an interesting little tidbit there about some processing room anti-corrosion stuff made by, IIRC, Shell. There was some sample dialogue about the stuff to illustrate this point: Person A: What's the business value of the anti-corrosion stuff? Salesman: Business value? Well, it doesn't generate revenue or cut costs. I don't know how you'd talk about it's business value. Person A: What happens if a refinery doesn't use this stuff? Salesman: Well, corrosion builds up and will eventually cause a leak that could result in a fire or an explosion. Point-of-view counts for a lot.