

How can a startup understand if it's the right time for a pivot? - mattfrench

When is a pivot necessary?  Before the MVP because of feedback on a demo? To help formulate an easier customer acquisition and sales strategy?
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michael_dorfman
In many cases, an MVP shouldn't take a whole lot of time to build. If this is
the case, you're better off getting the MVP out there, and getting feedback
from that rather than the demo.

If, on the other hand, the demo is getting consistently negative (or "meh")
feedback from prospective users, you may want to re-examine your value
proposition.

Obviously, thinking about your customer acquisition and sales strategy is
always a good thing, and if there are changes you can make to your product
development to make those things easier, do it. Just remember what people say
that they want isn't always what they really want-- which is why it's good to
get the MVP out there.

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mattfrench
I totally agree with everything here. We are in the processing of getting our
MVP out by the end of the month. This also might help clarify some things--the
feedback was from a group of investors that were run through an investor pitch
and product demo.

That said, they might not be able to totally define how the product will be
received in the market, but they might be right on the money about customer
acquisition and sales strategy. The main feedback was to have a lower cost and
more scalable sales and acquisition model. This is why a product pivot may be
a good start, because the product in development now might not be able to
successfully find a good fit with customer and sales strategies.

However, not having the MVP out there to understand how users interact makes a
product pivot question harder to address.

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michael_dorfman
If your MVP will be ready at the end of the month, I'd definitely put any
pivot thoughts on hold until after that-- better to spend the next 3 weeks
focused on getting the MVP to the customers, and then you can take all the
feedback into account for the next iteration/pivot.

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alttab
When what you're doing is starting to look a lot tougher or is not working,
and you see an adjacent (and somehow related) opportunity.

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mattfrench
Do you have any examples of startup pivots?

