#52 Pivoting Your Products
I hope you’re having an amazing start to Q1. But if you’re not, you’re not alone. Maybe you’re pivoting your business, unhappy and realizing you need a change, or just aware that something isn’t working.
Or in my case, laying on a beach for a week in Aruba thinking that you should be hustling to get your revenue up and then telling yourself 5 minutes later you deserve a break anyway. 😂
I am in a season of pivots — real talk — my revenue was down by 60% in January, which doesn’t feel like a great vibe to start the year off.
But I’m not panicking.
When you pivot your products or services, a dip is typical. But it’s like anything in life — a little setback can have exponential returns.
If you stay doing what you’re doing out of fear of a revenue dip you’ll end up on the same hamster wheel of misery. Ouch.
To be a successful entrepreneur you have to
Be more comfortable with risk than the average person.
Believe you can do anything and pursue it with hard work and creativity.
Pivots have risks, so in this issue I’ll discuss how to reduce your risk in changing your offers or launching a new product.
Let's get into it –
Grab a notebook and get started on your pivot plan below — I promise you’ll have more clarity than you’ve had in a while about what to do next.
Step 01 — Do A Retro
First let’s check in with what already exists and what’s working and what isn’t. Make two columns and answer the following with as many things as you can think of:
What is working?
What needs changed?
Include personal things about workload, lifestyle, team, as well as what you're hearing from customers.
Step 02 — Assumption Storm
What assumptions are you making about WHY things aren’t working or why things need changed?
An assumption is something you believe to be true but you don’t have the data or research to back it up.
Make a list of as many assumptions as you can think of.
Assumptions are the silent killer of products. I watch entrepreneurs run with “their gut” (also known as assumptions) all of the time and then they are unhappy with their results.
I’m not saying never use your gut, but you are more likely to be successful if you make data-driven decisions.
Step 03 — Do Customer Research
Here she goes again telling us to do research… that’s how you make data-driven decisions, my friend!
Use the list of assumptions to define your research goals. What do you need to learn more about before making a pivot decision?
Now that you have research goals, you need to gather data.
It’s important to capture both qualitative and quantitative data.
Examples:
Qualitative data
1:1 conversations with your customers
Observational field work (visit customers in their element)
Test your new product or idea live
Community forum posts
Event chats
Quantitative data
Surveys
Marketing analytics
Course drop off data (usage data)
Social polls
A/B testing
Using insights from your research, outline your new product, program or service.
Step 04 — Run An Experiment
Before you blow up your business and pivot things, make sure what you’re pivoting to is going to work.
Using your research, come up with a plan to test your new idea.
Here are some ways to do that —
Run a beta. I beta tested my new services I’m pivoting to (membership audits & strategy sprints) before deciding to stop offering fractional leadership. Offer a hefty discount in exchange for feedback and a testimonial if they loved it. (I did 50% off)
Create a landing page & waitlist. To test if your community or target customers are going to be interested in your new offer make the landing page before investing more time. Compare the conversion to your typical conversion with a target of the same or better.
Get feedback from your existing customers. Let’s say you plan to create a new membership experience, set up some of it (like the structure) and then get on a call with your customers and share screen on it and ask their impressions without giving much context. See if they understand the value, how to navigate, and if they would use it.
Step 05 — Define Your Pivot
Now that you’ve done some research, what are you pivoting to?
I’m going to breeze over this step because we’re not reviewing how to design a product right now — but here’s my general levers for making product decisions:
Customer value — is this revolutionary? Is it going to significantly impact how your customers solve this problem today? Do they NEED it?
Business value — how much value is this going to bring to the business and does it align with your long term goals?
Level of effort — how easy is this going to be to create?
Think about your long term goals and scale strategy too — ideally you’re not making a major pivot again in the next year.
I’ve worked with entrepreneurs that pivot every quarter and that’s not a productive strategy, you’re just confusing your community.
Step 06 — Create Your Timeline
Now that you’ve decided what changes you are going to make, you have to plan your launch phases.
This is like change management in a corporate setting — we need to think about the customer experience and our revenue in the meantime.
I am no longer offering fractional product leadership, which means as my client contracts have ended I’m not renewing them.
Naturally that causes a dip in revenue — and so I have done what I can to align my marketing strategies for my new offers.
Think about your pivot in phases, it doesn't happen overnight. I've just finished my beta phases and now am in the launch official marketing period which means finalizing my pivot is right around the corner!
Step 07 — Tell Your Community
Once you’ve made a decision about the changes you’re making, bring your community along for the ride.
Make these changes WITH them.
You might notice that I do that with my newsletter — I tell you the behind the scenes, the decisions I’m making, and ask for your feedback along the way.
When you have a community, you have a social contract with them. Bringing them along for the decision making makes it so no one feels blindsided by change. It's really important for keeping your community culture strong.
If you know where you want to go, but are missing the roadmap to get there, I can help.
I’ve got a limited time offer through February 10, 2024 just for you!
Apply for a Strategy Sprint or book a Membership Audit in the next week and get a free Social Media Audit from Keeping Up Social.
Your product won’t be successful without a solid marketing strategy and organic social is an amazing way to build community.
She is the SMM behind some of the large personal brand accounts we all love to follow and this free audit will give you the insights you need to refresh your social media accounts before you launch your pivot!