< Back to The Campfire There’s a popular metaphor in the strategy world of comparing your company’s brand to an iceberg. The idea is that your identity (name, logo, colors, and such) are like the visible “tip” of your brand. Lying below the surface are the strategy...
< Back to The Campfire Whether you’re a startup or you’ve been around for years, talking to your customers is a critical practice. It provides a level of insight into your business that you can’t get through surveys and analytics alone. I recently worked on a...
< Back to The Campfire The 10X Rule for innovation sets a bar that’s simple to understand but very difficult to achieve. The rule roughly states that in order for customers to switch from a current behavior, they need a new option that’s 10X better. The value of...
< Back to The Campfire As business owners, we all make assumptions about how our customers think and feel. But when those assumptions are wrong, customers will struggle to see the value of our offering.To validate our assumptions, we do things like:Talk to...
< Back to The Campfire How much does timing affect your chance of success in a market? What outside forces might impact the longevity of your business? A few weeks ago, I was on my morning commute to the gym. There was another car about 50 yards ahead of me and I...
< Back to The Campfire Over the past several years, I’ve had the opportunity to provide mentorship to college students at USC through the school’s entrepreneurship program. As I work with these students on their first business ideas, there’s a question I ask in...