Week 1 - Start-Up Disconnects

    Managing your own business is difficult. Starting one can be even harder. It can be so hard, Helen Yu likened it to climbing Mount Everest. In her book Ascend Your Start-Up she discusses, the disconnects that must be overcome to successful start a business (2021).

    The first enemy of starting a business is the product/mark4et fit disconnect (Yu, 2021). For this disconnect, you must address if your product is viable in the market. This requires you to do research in the market relating to the customers' wants, the value of your product, and the issues with your product. Basically, you need to determine if the customers will want your product.

    The next disconnect is the minimum viable repeatability disconnect (Yu, 2021). Once you determine that customers will buy your product, you release your product out to the customers. This is when you determine if the product can be sold multiple times. If your product is only sold a few times, then that could mean the customer base is not satisfied with your product, and it is back to the drawing board.

    Once you prove that your product will be sold many times, you then have to face the customer voice disconnect, product disconnect, and measurement disconnect. To complete this hurdle, you must be able to receive criticism from the customers. You then take that criticism and improve the existing design or expand the product list to meet the customers' demands. This is when performance measurements can come in handy. Based on the customer feedback, you need to adjust your performance measurements to include this feedback. If these measurements are properly
 met, you can reasonably assume you are meeting your customers' wants and needs.

References

Yu, Helen. (2021). Ascend your start-up. Made for Success Publishing.