Product Development

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Feedback Loops: The Bane of the Experienced

Posted on by Jason Kanigan
emotional roller coaster broken feedback loop

Feedback Loops are the #1 challenge killing businesses I've seen in over 25+ years professionally. From startups through $100MM multinationals, feedback loops are the Achilles Heel of every organization.

I have also noticed that the awareness of this issue is a clear indicator dividing newbies from experienced executives. If you want to progress, you'd best start looking for broken or missing feedback loops...and fixing them.

You’re going to encounter this problem at every stage as you grow. It is not going to go away. You are not going to magically resolve it.

emotional roller coaster broken feedback loop

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Discovering and Resolving Broken Feedback Loops Is A Never-Ending Challenge

As your organization grows to each different size and shape, the feedback loop issue will rear its ugly head again and again. What worked before will break and things will start falling through the cracks again. You'll feel like you're on an emotional roller coaster when a feedback loop issue is near.

Here are a few areas where broken feedback loops impact your business:

> Accurate data needed to make decisions based upon

> Client updates and communication

> Information exchange ** between departments of your own business **

> Communication lines breaking

> Spreadsheets not getting updated in a timely manner

> Projects not updated or followed up on⏤the ball will NOT be moved down the field

> Individuals becoming sulky or afraid or overprotective of their interests or silo-izing and withholding information from other people inside and outside of your organization (it happened between the CIA and FBI pre-9-11 and they’re supposedly on the same darn side…think you’re immune?).

All this and worse will happen as you strain to grow. Do you recognize any of these symptoms?

This Is A People Problem, Not A Technical Problem

And I caution you now: what you think is a Technical problem is actually a People problem. It’s no accident the very first episode of my show is about this issue: You have a People problem, not a Technical problem.

Be ever watchful for the feedback loop problem.

When information is not accurate or available when you need it⏤you have a broken feedback loop.

When people are withdrawing from conversation and not sharing the truth with you⏤you have a feedback loop problem.

When the processes and systems you put in place are demonstrably not being followed⏤you have feedback loop issues.

Again, these are the bane of organizations tiny and massive, from little startups through large multinationals. I’ve seen and operated inside of all kinds, and there they are: the broken feedback loops again.

These issues will not fix themselves.

You must resolve them. They are the #1 problem you can solve in your business, because they lead to swift, accurate communication; fast decisions; good client relations; happy interpersonal culture in your business; and more multiplicative results. There is nothing more important once you are driving revenue that you could be working on than fixing broken feedback loops.

This is an epidemic to be identified and stamped out.

And you must take personal responsibility. Your COO, when you have one, should also be taking personal responsibility in doing so. And so on, embedded into your culture. If people are afraid to speak up, you’ve created that broken feedback loop and I implore you handle that killer problem right now.

What evidence have you seen of missing or broken feedback loops in your organization?

>> Want to explore where and how broken feedback loops are damaging your organization, its performance, and your client and partner relationships? Book a call with Jason to discuss. <<

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Sharing New Business Ideas, Trust and NDAs

Posted on by Jason Kanigan

Sharing new business ideas can be a scary proposition for the idea originator. Here are the kinds of worries people typically ask me about when it comes to sharing their 'baby' with someone else for feedback and possible implementation help.

Do you feel corporations are fair?

I have an idea that could be worth millions to a company. Should I drop it in their suggestion box and hope they pay me?

Should I build a business around it and help them indirectly?

How about getting legal agreements in place and then meeting with the company under an NDA?

How would you protect you business concept/idea? Non-competition agreement? Joint venture contract? Trademark or registration?

[Originally published March 1, 2016]

Ethics In Sharing New Business Ideas

My answer begins with the statement that business is business, and that is a different world than personal relationships. Loyalty stands for very little, unfortunately. If you find a business associate who values loyalty, try to stay in touch with them.

An NDA/non-compete and a licensing agreement should keep you protected, if you're going the road of giving the idea to someone else to execute.

Let's talk about execution.

This is how an idea's value can really be measured when you bring it to someone else.

How interested are they in executing it?

You have to know this before you meet and disclose the idea.

And then you still have another factor to consider: honestly (or morality). We can do this with a 2x2 grid demonstrating four possibilities in a sort of "Idea Sharing Risk Table":

sharing new business ideas

They are interested and honest.

They are interested and dishonest.

They are uninterested and honest.

They are uninterested and dishonest.

Four Quadrants of Sharing New Business Ideas

Are you starting to see why it's important to know how they rank on these two factors before you reveal your idea?

We're in negotiation now. Which, by the way, is selling. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. What I am sharing is selling advice.

You had better have your BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) figured out for each of these four possibilities.

Copyrights, trademarks, patents are all helpful, but they are not bulletproof protection.

Especially patents.

Utility patents, for something like a zipper on an article of clothing being termed as a "device pocket", are the kind of thing Mark Cuban goes berserk about the silliness of. They're the veneer of protection.

Regular patents only protect execution (see how we're back to that word again?) specifically the way you have explained it.

So 3M has a patent on Post-It (tm) Notes.

The patent is for a lightweight strip of glue running across the top of a small piece of paper.

If you can come up with another way of temporarily securing the note to other objects without using lightweight glue, 3M's patent is meaningless. You can just go do that.

That's why when you disclose your idea, the NDA is not really protection. If they can figure out another way of executing your idea, they're home free.

If they are interested and honest, they will tell you so. They are ready to get started, will play by the rules, and you can expect to be paid properly. [SAFE]

If they are interested and dishonest, they will tell you it's an airy-fairy idea, they don't like it, it won't work. But they were quick to agree to the meeting. And they kept asking you questions about how you planned to execute the idea. [DANGER]

If they are uninterested and honest, they again will tell you so. It may be hard to book the meeting. They keep bumping the date. This may be a good opportunity for a reality check, and possibly getting execution ideas from someone who knows how to do the work but isn't going to get involved in it. [SAFE]

If they are uninterested and dishonest, you are going to get the run-around. The meeting will take forever to get, or get booked and run so fast it's like poop through a goose. They may ask a lot of questions to "hedge their bets"...but they'll never execute. [SAFE]

As you can see, most of the time, you are safe when sharing new business ideas.

Risk and Execution When Sharing New Business Ideas

Remember, execution is rare.

You can be sharing new business ideas all you like. People are already busy with their own ideas, which they believe to be valuable. They are unlikely to remove resources from those to execute your new idea.

So overall, you are relatively safe from being ripped off...especially if you are careful who you share your idea with.

How long it takes you to book the meeting, the process they want to follow, how they ask and answer questions...all these will show you their level of honesty. Easy come, easy go. There should be some rigor involved in setting up an agreement like this. Honest people will probably want to see you put some skin in the game, too.

2021 Update On Sharing New Business Ideas

In the five years since this post was first published, I've continued to see a great deal of nervousness in sharing ideas between new connections. Especially with technical concepts, the new business owner or founder tends to believe someone is going to "steal their baby". But this is a sign of the founder being a newbie. It immediately shows the other party that you are inexperienced and they will probably avoid working with you.

On the other hand if you are experienced and really feel you have reason to be nervous in sharing your ideas with another person, that's a sign you shouldn't be doing business with them. Should you have to "lock things down" and try to protect your intellectual property in a relationship as you go into it, would you truly be surprised later on if the other party found a way to wriggle out of those terms? How things begin is likely how they're going to continue.

Remember that most of the time you're safe to share. In those cases where it feels unsafe, trust your impressions.

>>Jason Kanigan is a business strategist concentrating on operations improvement, entering new markets, and sales training. Book a consultation with Jason here to discuss your specific situation.<<

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The Danger of the Two Sales

Posted on by Jason Kanigan

The Danger of the Two Sales is a straightforward but not well-known marketing and sales problem that kills many new businesses.

Here's what happens to produce it:

Someone has a brainwave and makes a new product or service.

You see this all the time in the Software-as-a-Service world...but you'll also see it in products, such as a condiment.

Then the creator goes out and tries to sell the thing, and discovers nobody wants it.

"Why don't they understand how great this is?" they shout. After all, it's clear as day to them why people need whatever it is.

But the public, the target market, other people... everyone else just doesn't get it.

The now-frustrated creator gives up.

the danger of the two sales, unable to sell, positioning problem, marketing problem

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

Understanding What Causes The Danger Of The Two Sales

What happened here?

The new business owner, fired up with the enthusiasm for their innovative idea, has dangerously bypassed the first problem in sales and marketing...

...identifying a problem people admit they'll pay to have solved.

This is the first of The Two Sales. You must make this first sale, and it is best if that sale is implicitly understood by your prospective customer before you begin talking to them.

In other words, the first sale is that your prospect admits there is a serious problem to be solved: one that they will pay money to fix.

If you haven't achieved this, you run a great risk of having your "solution" sound unnecessary or, even worse, nonsense. You'll ever make a sale in this situation.

The second of The Two Sales is that YOU are the best provider of solutions for this problem.

Can you see how if you blindly try to rush past the first of The Two Sales, that your target market agrees there's an issue here worth solving in the first place, your prospect will blink at you in confusion when you try to show off "your baby"?

Making Use Of The Two Sales

You might be astonished how often this situation comes up. If you keep the Danger of the Two Sales in mind as you begin, though, you'll be able to make use of it.

As a for-instance, I pre-qualify prospective clients for people who already believe that a metrics-based approach is good. For them to already be demonstrating they value numbers because they're collecting their own data—and aren't afraid of math.

So many newbie business owners are afraid of a little math.

When I do talk to someone about our services, I know they're already on board with doing some math...that they speak the language of marketing and operations results. I do not have to risk falling into the situation of trying to sell someone who just isn't into numbers and probably never will be. What a frustrating experience that would be!

Do you see how this directs your marketing?

Your marketing is best deployed in filtering in those people who already believe as you do. Then you can talk to those who qualify—those you've made The First Sale to—further about the details of your amazing solution.

Of course there are situations where a new problem and a new solution are very real. But you'll still have to deal with The Two Sales: before you'll ever make a sale you'll have to educate and convince someone, or get them to agree, that there is a serious problem in this area. Then you can move on to you being the best solution provider.

Many, many businesses have died an early death because their founders did not understand The Danger of the Two Sales. I encourage you to not be one of those founders.

>> Jason Kanigan is a business strategist and conversion expert. To book a session to speak with Jason, click here. <<