The Profit Prophet

While I was working in product marketing, I always heard people talking about “ time-to-market ,” and how important it was to get products to market as quickly as possible. Instinctively, this sounds good, but in reality what is important is “ timeliness to marke t.” What that means is that you need to get your product to the market just before the market starts to develop. I am reminded of a parable that was told to me by a great mentor while I was at Texas Instruments concerning timing. It was called Unfolding a Rose . A young student, whose wife had just bore him a baby girl, was walking with his wise Teacher in a garden, explaining his loss at understanding life, his daughter's purpose, and how was he, who knew nothing, expected to shape a new life. The old man simply plucked a rose bud from a large, very old vine. "Here, open this without tearing or damaging any petals." He tried as the Teacher had bid him; yet, but he could not unfold the rose wit...

One thing I have found out is that your first idea about a product or service is usually not your best idea. As a general rule, be prepared to change your original idea in order to hit the moving target you planned on hitting. Some notables on this rule are Intel: It started out as a memory company, and its original numeric processor was made for factory automation, not the PC. Motorola: started out making radios receivers for automobiles. MCI: It started out as a radio network for truckers. Google: It started just looking up the number references to a particular thesis. Part of the reason why this happens is because when you start your product or company, you are only guessing what your potential customer might want or need, or how they will use a product. When you first release your product or service, you are trying to solve a problem or fill a need that you think needs to be solved or filled. Your perception of that need might not be totally accurate, or the need mig...