Key Questions on Business Strategy
º Offer: “Are you solving an Aspirin Problem”
What compelling problem does your product solve for them? (We’re talking about a problem
that actually causes pain, not a mild annoyance.)
Do they know they have the problem, and do they care? (The tech industry is
wonderful at retrofitting imaginary problems to features that engineers wanted to
build anyway.)
Seriously, do customers really care? Enough to spend money on a solution?
Does your product, need an ecosystem to, solve that problem?
º Competitive Differentiation: “what are you doing that can’t be copied?”
This could be operational excellence, customer intimacy, innovation / rate of, ecosystem etc.
What is it?
What could be the leading indicators that the market is changing?
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º Customer / Market: “Who is your customer, not?”
Who, specifically, is the customer for this product? (Note: “young people” does not count as a
target market, neither does “professionals.” Be specific about their lives and needs.)
If you are not repulsing somebody, you’re not doing a good job
º Pricing / Financial Model: “Do you have a realistic market structure?”
What is the more economical blend of sales and marketing resources to tackle each stage of
buying process
Has this model been created or are you doing it for the first time?
What scale does Revenue generation need to reach? Are you investing enough to get
there?
Have you realistically looked at what is the right price points, and where price plays in
the consideration process?
º Go to Market: “Will product flow to market easily?”
What is the unique price or value we can derive?
Do we have the right value proposition in mind on what problem it solves?
Is this a new market, an existing market, and so what do are the requirements of
investment in awareness, consideration, purchase
What are the right channel partners for this product? Have I got a motivated channel?
If not, what do I need to do to fix it?
What are campaigns, strategies, tactics that will generate interest and leads?
Am I doing effective (high ROI) campaigns? What’s my cost per lead?
Am I generating enough leads for sales? How long is the sales cycle to support the
pipeline?
Do we have a right share of voice in the market?
Am I enabling viral marketing?
Using web 2.0 methods?
º Delivery: “Do I have the right skills on the team to manage what I need to do in-
house vs. outsource?”
Do I know what to stop doing to do what I need to do well.
Have I found a way to align sales compensation, team compensation to create focus
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