This blog is inspired from the book “ Start With Why” by Simon Sinek.
Let’s understand more about one of the concepts mentioned in the book called “Golden Circle”, which entrepreneurs can use to ideate their business.
(Image 1 Source — SmartInsights)
The description of “Why, How & What” makes us understand 3 fundamental concepts of the technology business.
- Problem statement
- Solution
- Strategy for execution
If understood correctly, you have a great technology product & business. So what is next?
Going to customers, selling the product and hoping for their retention. But is that the case?
Not every time because “need” of industry and “want” of customers differ and businesses need to create strategy for their tech product accordingly.
They can be classified into two ways:
- Product- first technology
- Consumer- first technology
Product first technologies target the “need” of industry. This strategy is based on completely developing the product and capabilities first and then taking it forward. This strategy directly starts with guiding customers to the value their product is offering.
These are also the technologies that most of us would find its use cases to be beneficial from a very early stage.
Example of product- first strategy would be the conversation between a reporter and Steve jobs at one of the media tours for the launch of the I-phone in 2007.
(Image 2: Author’s own ideation)
On the other hand, consumer-first technologies cater to the “want” of consumers. The value of such technology is unclear at the early stage and often goes unnoticed.
The example is of social networking sites. Earlier it was used to share events of life and connect with new people. But slowly we began to rely on it to get updated with the news. Social networking sites at the core are a powerhouse of the information which arrived disguised under the name of “ Social networking”.
So which one is better?
Well both are “Mutually Exclusive & Collectively Exhaustive” [MECE framework]
“Product- first companies need to create full stack solutions whereas the focus of consumer-first companies should be to create the entire digital ecosystem for the consumers.”
(Author’s own ideation)
Both are two sides of the same coin and are equally important for the consumers and the industry to maintain the balance.
Both type of strategies have brought benefits to the businesses in three ways:
- Innovation
- Usage
- Monetization
So what is next?
Interesting times ahead.
Author:
Dr Archit Shah
