Here's to a lateral 2022!
Kicking off the year with an exercise, some thoughts and some updates
First of all, I hope 2022 started off with a blast for all of you. I’m personally truly grateful for 2021 - business was booming, this newsletter grew way more than I ever expected (with the short hiatus, we’re at about 1900 subscribers right now) and the support I’ve received from all of you has been amazing.
My plan for Lateral Thinking is to send at least 2 emails per week - if inspiration is kind to me, even more.
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Now, without further ado, let’s jump into it with a light lateral thinking exercise:
Two fishermen come back from a fishing expedition. They proudly announce: “The ones we caught, we threw away. The ones we couldn’t catch, we kept”.
What are they talking about?
Confusing, I know. I already love it.
An answer, as usual, at the end.
When excitement is not enough
I hope you all know the Theranos story by now - if not, I highly suggest getting up to speed on it (Elizabeth Holmes was recently found guilty on 4 counts of wire fraud - which basically means she scammed investors), it’s a prime example of how fundraising and building a product are two completely different businesses.
And since we’re on the topic of fundraising vs. product development, here’s something I want to talk about: I’m part of quite a few crypto communities and am personally invested in a few tokens.
While I do admire the enthusiasm around the scene (one group that I’m a part of got 100k people to join their Discord server in less than 10 days) and the fact that speculation can lead to real wealth building, I’m the first to admit almost none of these projects have a real product (yet).
The reality is excitement fades. It can keep us going for a while, but if the crypto/blockchain market doesn’t find real product-market fit within the next couple of years, it will stay what is now - a brilliant way to move money and get headlines (just like the art business).
Let’s move outside of crypto, because this situation happens to a lot of traditional businesses too. A quick way to check if you’re in the excitement phase or in the product phase is to try to get an average user onboarded. Then ask a few basic questions:
Can the user understand your product’s key attributes?
Can they onboard themselves?
Are they excited about the product experience?
Did they tell anyone about the product?
Did they come back for more?
Generally, if the answer to all 5 questions is “no”, you have a product problem. The funny thing is you don’t necessarily have to fix your product problem if you’re not playing the product game. If you’re playing the enthusiasm game - you have 3 very different priorities:
Fundraising - make sure you have enough money to keep enthusiasm flowing;
Branding - make sure your brand is absolutely spotless so you can attract new people in;
Audience - make sure you’re able to access enough people and get them talking about your “product”.
Now, truth be told, very few companies are 100% product or 100% enthusiasm, it’s often a mix between the two - but it’s important to know the percentage and what game you’re playing.
Otherwise, you might never reach your full potential.
Answer: They’re talking about their fleas.