Comments on: Pivoting

By: Hunch and the Goldilocks Principle « twoletterworlds

Hunch and the Goldilocks Principle « twoletterworlds — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:32:12 +0000

[...] At Hunch, we switched our focus (“pivoted“) about 14 months ago from B2C to B2B. Over that time, we pitched over 500 potential partners, [...]

By: cdixon.org – chris dixon's blog / Business development: the Goldilocks principle

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:02:17 +0000

[...] At Hunch, we switched our focus (“pivoted“) about 14 months ago from B2C to B2B. Over that time, we pitched over 500 potential [...]

By: Thomas Suarez – 6th Grade iPhone Application Developer | High Quality Propaganda

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:36:28 +0000

[...] account, spam your Twitter, or sell your location. It’s also never going to need to “pivot” and become something entirely [...]

By: The World News

The World News — Sun, 22 May 2011 11:04:00 +0000

I would code DNA instead of computers. Now that I met @EriGentry:twitter at the @MakersFaire:twitter .

By: Glemnitz

Glemnitz — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:56:27 +0000

Nice post. THX for your insights again.

By: Surfer Watch .com - Hunch Relaunches as Internet Personalization Service

Surfer Watch .com - Hunch Relaunches as Internet Personalization Service — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:56:40 +0000

[...] Dixon wrote a blog post six weeks ago on his personal site about how helpful it can be for a startup to pivot. "Ask yourself: if you [...]

By: Hunch Relaunches as Internet Personalization Service

Hunch Relaunches as Internet Personalization Service — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:21:55 +0000

[...] Dixon wrote a blog post six weeks ago on his personal site about how helpful it can be for a startup to pivot. “Ask yourself: if [...]

By: Never be pitchin’ | Philipp Moehring - how does this work?

Never be pitchin’ | Philipp Moehring - how does this work? — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:34:36 +0000

[...] when it comes to your round. When you are able to show people that you know how to turn corners, pivot, and close gaps they identify in your strategy, they will trust you much more as an entrepreneur. [...]

By: finance tutor

finance tutor — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:51:04 +0000

I think sometimes we try to pivot too frequently. Often an idea or product will take time to get adopted.

By: Bookmarks for July 11th from 19:15 to 21:45 | jordibares

Bookmarks for July 11th from 19:15 to 21:45 | jordibares — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:21:17 +0000

[...] Pivoting cdixon.org – chris dixon’s blog – [...]

By: ArticleSave :: Uncategorized :: Your Midyear Startup Checkup: Are You On Target?

ArticleSave :: Uncategorized :: Your Midyear Startup Checkup: Are You On Target? — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:06:33 +0000

[...] may involve slight tweaks or it might mean major upheaval. As Chris Dixon writes on the subject of pivoting, “You aren’t throwing away what you’ve learned or the good things you’ve [...]

By: Your Midyear Startup Checkup: Are You On Target? | This Is An Awesome Web Site

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:01:20 +0000

By: Chris Dixon on Pivoting | myninjaplease

Chris Dixon on Pivoting | myninjaplease — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:59:13 +0000

[...] .:cdixon.org-> Share this: [...]

By: Constant State of Change

Constant State of Change — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:34:14 +0000

[...] Yesterday, I read a post by Chris Dixon, who posed the question: “If we were to start over today, would we build our product the same way we had so far?” and then went on to talk about pivots. [...]

By: Nicholas Turner

Nicholas Turner — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:34:37 +0000

History is happening faster (to steal from Kurzweil) – and so are markets. That's why its important for teams to ask themselves Chris' question and identify their cognitive biases. And not just small companies – big fellas too. I'm living and breathing the mobile enterprise space. First, I'm shocked to find so many players fail to detect that their basic market assumptions are being invalidated (rug from under feet). Second and less surprising, I'm watching people assume that market dominance today assures dominance tomorrow. Computing is undergoing fundamental changes, in part driven by mobility. Players like RIM and Nokia could collapse, along with their approaches and models for the market. The only challenge to Chris' exploration – how in the heck to you balance big forest-through-trees introspection with day-to-day execution? I've suffered too many companies where we were overly paranoid (or insecure) about our position in the market and never executed fully or bravely enough.

By: Hot Potato will Scrobble your World

Hot Potato will Scrobble your World — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:16:48 +0000

[...] and others have proven that this is wrong, at least for geolocation (see Chris Dixon’s post on this [...]

By: Milos Solujic

Milos Solujic — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:38:58 +0000

Yeah, nice post indeed.
I would add "12 Angry Men" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/ as good addition. There is ratio 1/11 of NOT taking for granted some assumption. And that is one important asset for entrepreneurship.

By: Patrick Hitches

Patrick Hitches — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:47:20 +0000

Great read… Analyzing what is working and what needs to be done over in a new light with a new perspective.

Thanks for the reminder!

By: Darryl Kraemer

Darryl Kraemer — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:24:08 +0000

Great post Chris. Point 1) is especially valid in large orgs too, as the time to market can be longer for dev projects. This causes them to miss the opportunity in the market, yet they are unable to admit it is time to shelf the product and take the good pieces to use in a future product, as they have invested tens to hundreds of millions of dollars and need to get a return from it.

By: | Blake Anderson

| Blake Anderson — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:54:30 +0000

[...] (via http://cdixon.org/2010/06/14/pivoting/) [...]

By: Joseph Doughty

Joseph Doughty — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:47:58 +0000

#3 Solving the wrong problem. That's the one that trips me up. Making it too complicated or attaching too many costly bells and whistles. But, I'm always asking myself what would I do different, what would I do better? Great questions to ask.
Thanks

By: Angelo Keely

Angelo Keely — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:07:57 +0000

Sometimes you have to redraw the target around where the arrow actually lands.

By: Lessons from the pivoters | Watch us Getting Real

Lessons from the pivoters | Watch us Getting Real — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:50:57 +0000

[...] stuff here by C Dixon as tweeted by Tim Ferriss. It’s a piece all about the power of pivoting, and it’s [...]

By: Daniel Garcia

Daniel Garcia — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:24:44 +0000

The Bridge on the River Kwai syndrome is definitely a hard one for me. I hate messy systems, but an expensive monolith isn't the answer either. Good food for thought.

By: AOL Chooses Legal Injection For Bebo; Orange Juice And Associated Content; The Brain Drain At Agencies

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 04:19:42 +0000

[...] Angel investor Chris Dixon shares an exercise he uses to make sure he and his startup team are developing a product that they really want and that will overcome any bias. Dixon concludes by asking the reader, "If you started over today, would you build the same product? If not, consider significant changes to what you are building." Read more. [...]

By: howardlindzon

howardlindzon — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:11:10 +0000

so good chris. right on. as a non tech person in the web space, i think it has helpoed me use the cobble together tightly approach and go fast.

By: Diogenes

Diogenes — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:45:03 +0000

When I see problems like misuse of engineering resources, it's usually a lack of skilled business people who can work well with engineers.

By: theschnaz

theschnaz — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:01:43 +0000

I think 37 Signals is successful because they scratch their own itch and are honest with themselves.

My point was scratching your own itch is fine and can be useful, but if you do this you really need to be honest with yourself and you need to pay attention to negative feedback/experiences (even if that feedback comes from you.)

By: NicolasVDB

NicolasVDB — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:49:57 +0000

Not sure I got you: 37signals would be a counter-example, no? they're very successful *in spite* of (apparently) ignoring the world around them

By: Jerome Camblain

Jerome Camblain — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:58:24 +0000

I would not “pivot” in my firm is bang on the sweet spot. I need to be miles away; if not, I would adapt my product before changing course. I would call that “not meeting my target” if the word Failure does not suit here. The real reason why we (and many other) pivoted, is that the investors would not bother collecting the little money left, and thought the team was able to create more value than what was left.

By: theschnaz

theschnaz — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:13:23 +0000

Yea, getting out of the building and talking to potential customers/users is
a big part too.

Did you build an MVP for Hunch? It would be cool to see it as an example,
or an early version would be good too.

I think the MVP is a good tool, but I haven't seen many examples and I would
be very interested in seeing some.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:10:49 +0000

love that movie and scene!

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:07:48 +0000

You're right – with consumer apps you often not “solving a problem” but making something people like etc.

By: Vinicius Vacanti

Vinicius Vacanti — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:07:29 +0000

That's really good advice. Will keep it in mind.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:05:35 +0000

I don't think pivot = recognizing failure. I think there are situations when you should just shut down the company and other situations where you should pivot.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:04:52 +0000

I think a lot of the core principles of the Lean Startup Movement such as releasing a Minimum Viable Product are meant to figure out what the right problem is as quickly as possible and pivot accordingly.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:03:56 +0000

I think one way to handle this is to always tell people about the big goal you are aiming for while saying the actual implementation might vary greatly. At Hunch we have always wanted to create "taste profiles" for everyone on the web. We recently pivoted (today actually http://blog.hunch.com/?p=19044) but the core goal remains the same.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:02:16 +0000

good point. with enterprises it's easy to rationalize doing a one off when they are writing a big check, even if long term you end up acting more like an service provider vs product company.

By: chris dixon

chris dixon — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:00:35 +0000

Great way to think about it.

By: Don Don

Don Don — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:37:24 +0000

“KILL a FEATURE”, I like that! And have actually done that.

By: Vinicius Vacanti

Vinicius Vacanti — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:16:45 +0000

Another issue I've run into is the need to be consistent. That is, society punishes people for saying one thing and doing another (think of politicians and flip-flopping). In the startup world, you've told your team, investors and friends that you are working on X but then realize you need to switch to Y. The urge to be consistent can slow down and even prevent you from switching to Y.

Also, the question of “If you started over today, would you build the same product?” is exactly the reason why we pivoted Yipit.

By: theschnaz

theschnaz — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:43:43 +0000

@NicolasVDB you bring up a really important point. This confirmation bias is rooted in the 37 Signals idea of build something for yourself.

Building something for yourself can be very useful because you're part of your target market. On the other hand, if you only look for positive signs, you're in trouble.

You have to be extremely honest with yourself. Also it helps to have a few other people who are similar to give you quality feedback.

By: theschnaz

theschnaz — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:38:45 +0000

I think “If we were to start over today, would we build our product the same way we had so far?” is a great question. It's great because it focuses on what you've learned/accomplished with the context of your progress/reality.

Could you expand on solving the wrong problem? Do you use any tools for this? Survey.io comes to mind...

For me, being very honest with myself and talking to lots of other people helps a lot.

By: Jerome Camblain

Jerome Camblain — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:59:38 +0000

Before “pivoting” which is a nice way to say “recognise failure and rebound from it”, one has to know what business is he/she really in? Should the new idea be based on the market the firm is servicing (new product) or on the technology it has created (new market). That for me is the real question which forces to figure the ADN of your team.

By: pinboard June 15, 2010 — arghh.net

pinboard June 15, 2010 — arghh.net — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:55:34 +0000

[...] Pivoting cdixon.org – chris dixon’s blog mathewi: RT @chrismessina: Great advice from @cdixon that applies equally well to OAuth and OpenID: http://bit.ly/bbUV7f [...]

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:01:02 +0000

Being susceptible to falling in love with Tech is a problem I face. Fortunately I love shipping something that is needed more, but it's always there in the background.

Put another way, how is less important than what you're building.

By: The Blog of Burgher Jon » Hunch Gets The Value of “Signed” Data

The Blog of Burgher Jon » Hunch Gets The Value of “Signed” Data — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:51:00 +0000

[...] Chris Dixon’s blog post today is about Pivoting and starts with urging you to ask the question, “if you had it all to do [...]

By: My Career Pivots

My Career Pivots — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:36:50 +0000

[...] Dixon has written a great post about pivoting: Ask yourself: if you started over today, would you build the same product? If not, [...]

By: Barney Austen

Barney Austen — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:31:20 +0000

Hi Chris. I would agree that analysing your product set (and being prepared to “pivot” if necessary) is a key attribute for any company. Otherwise you can end up in what I would call the “Black hole syndrome” where you are throwing good money after bad.

I like the Bridge on the river kwai example – I almost did that – but thankfully saner people won the argument. I challenge myself each day to see if there are ways to do it more cost effectively and “almost as well” rather than re-engineering from scratch.
Thanks for sharing – an enjoyable article.

By: Bertil

Bertil — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:16:37 +0000

Well… “skill” is not the right word here: my skills are to find & assert a market—not everyone in a start-up is a coder.

Still pretty convinced you missed my point, though.