

Pivots are for the lucky. There's a better way.  - jaf12duke
http://www.humbledmba.com/pivots-are-for-the-lucky-theres-a-better-way

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brandnewlow
Pivoting is when something rotates around a fixed point.

If you take the product you already built (your fixed point) and apply it to a
different market, that's a pivot.

Pet Peave: If you rename your company and now it's doing something completely
new with a new codebase, it's not a pivot, it's starting over!

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corin_
On the other hand, if you're walking along and you pivot, you may only have
changed your direction slightly.. but you are now headed in a totally
different direction towards a new destination.

It's possible for a small pivot to make a major different, it's also possible
for a pirvot to be 180degrees, i.e. a complete turn around.

That said, I'm with you, it irks me when a company "pivots" and is basically a
new company with the same people behind it - but from the point of view of the
definition of "pivot", it does fit.

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jonathanjaeger
At the end of the day, people are picking hairs about the "definition" of a
word. Pivot is an easy term to remember instead of having to describe at
length the change a company made. I think the bigger concern is throwing the
word pivot around to the point it becomes an annoying buzzword, rather than
arguing about semantics.

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brandnewlow
What bugs me is when folks use "pivot" to avoid having to confess that an idea
failed or was poorly conceived. It's really hard to learn and get better at
something without moments of reckoning where you take stock after something
fails.

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richcollins
High level concepts like this have their place, but what really makes or
breaks a company is the hundreds of details that you have to get right. I'd
love to see way more discussion of the details and less business guru
pontification.

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chr15
This really isn't a novel concept. It's called _adapting_ , and every business
must do it in order to survive.

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kreilly
That's the exact point I was going to make except I would call it _evolving_.
Either way, same thing. Not really a new concept.

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jal278
Exactly, the idea of exaptation in biology might be relevant, too; a resource
first developed in one context is often useful in different contexts. While
evolving or exaptation might not be a new concept, it is an important one that
bears thought when executing a startup.

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inmygarage
Would you consider facebook's move to the news feed a "pivot"? They certainly
changed the fundamental way you interact with the product and shifted its
purpose (a directory of your friends vs. updates about what they are doing)
Most tech businesses that has survived, one could make the argument, have
"pivoted". No matter what you call it, it's just good business. A lot of
people are calling the Stickybits move to turntable a "pivot" - but wasn't
their purpose this entire time to create a new way for people to interact with
media? Different interface, same purpose. Make stuff people want, right?

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malkia
And I've thought the talk would've been on QSORT.

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billybob
tldr; "Listen to your customers and try to make a big but not 180-degree
change in direction. I'm going to call this a veer. I know of a company doing
this, but I can't tell you the details. But they are awesome."

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billybob
Felt to me more like "check out this company" than "let me explain something
new to you."

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grannyg00se
tldr; Don't start over unnecessarily. Try to listen to your customers and
implement reasonable changes to satisfy important needs.

~~~
mgkimsal
Sometimes you pivot because you don't have any customers to listen to in the
first place.

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fedd
the story would be more educating with some more details. may be it's really
16 degrees pivot, how do we know.

