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5 Comments

Let's share mistakes and lessons learned?

Some of mine below:

Pricing

• I should've created a unique pricing point, telling the potential customers straightaway. I'll need to invest $x and everything will be sorted to you in x days

Potential client: “how much does it cost?”
Me: “It depends. We charge $x for 5 KPIs + set up + project for 5 KPIs”
Potential client: “How much is the set up?”
Me: “It depends, could take some hours to a few days”
Potential client: ”ok, I’ll have a think”

Market

• Focusing on one industry first would be advantageous and easier to discuss what sort of problems the product solve

Potential client: “What can I monitor with your product?”
Me: “Anything, any area of your company”
Potential client: “What industries are you focusing on?”
Me: “With work with any industry”
Potential client: ”ok, I’ll have a think”

Product

• Less is more

Me: "Well, I think the current customers will love this new feature. Let's implement it"
After months of implementation...
Me: "Hey users, here's a brand new feature you were waiting for"
Customers: "Well, let's see if and how we can use it"
Me, after next deployment: "Well, we actually removed the feature, as made no one was using it"

Would love to hear your mistakes along the way and lessons learned.

on June 17, 2020
  1. 1

    Hello Leo, me again 🙂
    Could you tell us why you think the customers may had “thinking about” instead of go/non-go? Why do you think it was a mistake to no set a price early on, even if you have an installation that can actually take hours or days?

    1. 1

      The potential ones didn't become clients because they didn't know how much would cost. Had I defined a fixed price first, probably I'd had more clients.

  2. 1

    I built something without ever really testing the market to see if people needed/wanted it and without getting a customer base beforehand. It was a mistake but also an amazing learning opportunity. The whole process of building to shipping was amazing. Maybe I can still turn it around. We will see.

    1. 1

      I built something without ever really testing the market to see if people needed/wanted it and without getting a customer base beforehand

      It's recommended to do the other way around, but your strategy might work if you know a few people that may have the problem you're trying to solve

      Now that you shipped, it's time to promote it, right?

      1. 1

        oh yeah. I consider it a "mistake". But I have enjoyed the process. And it has taught me A LOT. Definitely time to promote. This is the hard part for me!