[HN Gopher] Business questions worth asking
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Business questions worth asking
Author : gmays
Score : 142 points
Date : 2023-11-10 19:02 UTC (2 days ago)
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| rapnie wrote:
| This is a very nice and comprehensive checklist. I find that many
| articles e.g. on creating a Lean Canvas are so buzzword-heavy,
| even pompous, that they are unbearable reads. This reads like a
| practical guide. Awaiting the next installment. Thank you.
| hasoleju wrote:
| Great collection of questions for a business with product market
| fit. Most of the questions focus on making existing operations
| more efficient.
|
| One question that could be added to the first part: Customer &
| value props
|
| Which pain of our customers does our product remove?
| JohnFen wrote:
| Yes. I, too, was thinking that the three most important
| questions should have been four, and that the fourth is
| essentially what you say here.
|
| What are we really selling? (To put it another way, what are
| our customers really buying?). Hint: it's not the software,
| hardware, service, etc. It's rare for new businesses to have a
| good handle on this question, but the question is a critical
| one.
| coffeecantcode wrote:
| > What things about our [market/customers] will never change? Are
| we investing enough in those?
|
| A seemingly obvious question but one that isn't posed often
| enough. Open your eyes and play the long game, don't waste too
| much time or money chasing what won't be around in 3, 6, 12
| months unless you absolutely have to.
|
| Loved the list, really has my gears turning thinking about my own
| business strategy.
| sebastiennight wrote:
| I recall reading The Robert Collier Letter Book when I was
| studying copywriting, and he had this quote about fads versus
| trends versus things that will never change.
|
| It said that some products will always be needed, and gave an
| example : men will always need hats to wear in polite society.
|
| Reading it 100 years later when societal norms have changed so
| much (and not only will you not see a single hat in a posh
| restaurant, they are even listed on the forbidden things of
| their dress codes) reinforced that there is no such thing as
| needs/products that "never change".
| coffeecantcode wrote:
| Also a fantastic point, what do we mean when we say 'never
| change' ? I think it was a bit near sighted for the book to
| use a fashion example, albeit a fashion example that had, at
| the time, been around for hundreds of years prior, but even
| 100 years later through its own mistakes the book is
| ironically teaching a whole new set of lessons through a
| retrospective lens. The lesson it's teaching by being wrong
| is arguably more meaningful than the lesson it was trying to
| teach at the time of writing.
| QuantumGood wrote:
| The pandemic caused a "never change" to happen in many
| businesses. There are many things unlikely to happen that
| could have high impact. Taken as a group, _something_
| unlikely yet high impact becomes likely (i.e. the Black
| Swan paradox).
| coffeecantcode wrote:
| And Black Swan events do happen, it's like the fact that
| growing up my town got hit by a 100 year flood. Twice.
|
| But in the wake of Covid when it comes to business
| analysis I think that we now have a different outlook on
| why is variable and what is not. We might have gotten a
| little too high and mighty with our assumptions.
|
| There are still things that will never change about the
| base relationship you have with your customers if you
| have a viable business model though.
| hannes0 wrote:
| The irony is that he did use social norms as an example that
| will never change. However, if we change the example to
| something that will _really_ never change, it's still quite
| accurate: (wo)men will always need hats in cold weather.
| JohnFen wrote:
| And yet, when things freeze over where I am, I see a lot of
| people out and about without hats on.
| hannes0 wrote:
| Maybe the hat industry hasn't invested enough in
| marketing to them ;)
| jterrys wrote:
| >(wo)men will always need hats in cold weather.
|
| Women will always need yoga pants in all weather. There
| updated for modern times )
| nine_k wrote:
| While a hat may be not an eternal feature of a nice
| restaurant, food likely is.
| RandomLensman wrote:
| I find a focus on uniqueness tricky. A lot times, firms within
| the same business line have a lot of commonalities between each
| other and products and services are quite fungible. The
| particular uniquenesses might not be worth much.
| JohnFen wrote:
| The uniqueness may not be in the product. It may be in the
| business practice. A truly customer-focused business is
| actually very rare (despite all of the marketing business
| engage in to convince us that they're "customer-focused"), for
| instance. That can be the differentiator.
|
| Or maybe providing a common product/service in an unusually
| accessible or convenient way. Or providing a common
| product/service in a way that is tailored to a particular
| subgroup. And so forth.
| user_named wrote:
| "UX is more than just UI. It's the holistic user experience,
| including how people buy. How can we improve here? Features don't
| create differentiation. Experiences do. Does [X] align well with
| marketing to leverage cycles? Does it drive behavior change for
| true differentiation?"
|
| Nah fam this ain't it.
|
| Is this guy able to answer any of these himselves? Or does he ask
| these in meetings to look smart?
| uxcolumbo wrote:
| Don't let us hanging.
|
| What's your version?
| nine_k wrote:
| Good answers to such questions are worth a lot of money. Don't
| expect such answers shared casually, except in the most
| general, least actionable form.
| ilaksh wrote:
| I feel like getting customers to talk to me is the hardest part.
| Even when I have hundreds of people using an MVP for free,
| literally less than five would say anything in the Discord.
|
| I feel like I could immediately build multiple great products
| using generative AI for specific communities. If I could just get
| three people from that community to tell me what they were trying
| to do and then try the solution I build.
|
| But it seems like people just want to do the specific activity
| they are doing in the specific niche they are in. They don't want
| to do new things. So it seems like somehow it's a social problem
| not a technical one. I need to be inside of a community and
| observe their existing activities and insert something that just
| makes it easier. Without requiring them to think differently or
| try something new or go outside their niche.
|
| I did do that last year and managed to make several hundred
| dollars on transaction fees multiple months in a row. That was a
| big win, for me. But it was a small niche and that dried up.
| simonswords82 wrote:
| People are busy. They have a million things vying for their
| attention.
|
| If you want feedback that badly, you need to ask them one at a
| time for feedback. Go to them, go network with them, have
| coffee with them, call them, email them directly.
| ilaksh wrote:
| Well, everyone needs to have some level of feedback, it's not
| just me. That is a good suggestion though.
|
| I have tried messaging a few people today. They seem to be
| ignoring me. But it's a small sample so far.
|
| I will keep your suggestion in mind. I have a feeling that
| most are going to ignore me still but I assume it will be
| better than just only hoping people will write something in
| Discord.
| simonswords82 wrote:
| Thanks for taking my suggestions onboard. I was trying to
| be positive.
|
| I do agree with your premise that obtaining customer
| feedback is hard. That's why you have to be relentless
| about it.
| jmchuster wrote:
| It's probably helpful to first get a sense of how much work
| it is to gather customer feedback. As an example, Qualtrics
| was getting single digit percent response rates, on a
| simple NPS survey (https://delighted.com/blog/average-
| survey-response-rate). If you're asking people to give you
| more detailed feedback, I'd imagine the hit rate might be
| even lower. Another data point, people who gather feedback
| professionally often offer customers $100 for an hour of
| their time.
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(page generated 2023-11-12 23:01 UTC)