You’ve got this. As in, control over the situation!
The world is looking to business to invent products and services that create value. The global pandemic has created a range of challenges that we haven’t faced before. Challenges range from the profound to the mundane. How will I feed my family? How will I keep my relationships intact? How will I keep my natural hair colour a secret? What we value might have changed, but many of us are still shopping for solutions.
You need to move fast. The Hoist team explains the approach and skills that your business needs to get to market during a global pandemic.
Now is the best time to launch. Seriously
This is your moment of truth. It’s not time to bunker down, binge watch Netflix and hope that the world goes away. It’s time to thrive. Everyone’s reasons for ‘why now’ are different. There’s a few to reflect on.
In a crisis, the more things change, the more they stay the same
Getting to market is an iterative process. Pandemic aside, the ‘what’ of getting your new products and services to market has not fundamentally changed. At Hoist, we break getting to market into five key steps. The current crisis means that organisations need to be more creative with ‘how’ things get done. Here’s our ‘how’.
Step 1: Reflect on your organisation’s capabilities
Not every organisation can switch straight into the highest demand areas. Your organisation needs to have excellent facilities and a robust supply chain already to start producing high priority goods like respirators, face maskers, hand sanitizer, canned goods and paper products. Reflect on what you’ve already got as a foundation. Raving fans? A giant warehouse? A fleet of delivery trucks? Great call centre? Local manufacturing?
Step 2: Identify the ‘quarantine’ problem that you are solving
It is often cited that the western world has started stockpiling guns, alcohol and canned goods. This rush has already happened. Designing products and services for our current world means looking forward, not backward. What challenges will we face two months’ from now? How might your organisation create a competitive advantage by solving them?
Step 3: Test your assumptions with data
Our first two steps focused on using logic. Now it’s time to switch tune and use data to narrow our decision-making. Data analysis answers questions like – What can we learn from other countries facing lockdowns? Have we identified the right target customers? Which marketing tactics have the lowest customer acquisition costs? In a rapidly changing world, analysis needs looking forward rather than backwards to deliver insight.
Step 4: Build something
There has been a lot written and said about minimum viable products. We use graphic communication to lower the costs and increase the speed of getting to the heart of what customers want. We visualise ideas easily and often to validate what is feasible while working seamlessly with our technology teams to make it work in the real world.
Step 5: Start making money
Market entry isn’t just about finding customers. It’s about finding customers that are willing to pay for your new goods and services, even if it is $1. We use data-driven digital marketing campaigns to make the most of your marketing spend, giving you the ability to respond quickly to a changing world.
You need a diverse mix of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills to get to market quickly
Getting to market quickly means you don’t have time to make too many mistakes. You haven’t got time for people who read about new product development once on the internet, studied it at school or want to put design thinking on their resume. You need real-world experience from people who have delivered under pressure before.
The hard skills you need from idea to launch span strategy, marketing, design, sales, research & development, operations, technology, legal and regulatory.
But what makes the difference are the soft skills. In a crisis, your team needs to work well together. They need to be resilient and calm under pressure. They need to know how to celebrate wins with you. Right now, we need all of the (online) parties that we can get.
Hoist is here (online) to get you to market rapidly
The Hoist team get new products and services to market in eight weeks. Our way forward creates a straight line between strategy, marketing and sales. We do this by blending ‘right now’ practice and real-world experience. Ask us how.
Hoist is a growth marketing consultancy making business relationships systematic. Our clients are resilient leaders seeking to build pipelines of happy customers. We analyse data, visualise concepts, plan horizons, develop products, control costs, design brands, automate sales and personalise experiences – fast. We prove ideas work, then manage and measure on-going.