Change Is Not Always a Bad Thing

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Almost every major product you know was not always exactly as you know it now. There were different phases to it, and in some cases, the product was something completely different. The best example of this is Facebook. Remember, it started out as a dating site for college campuses, and now it is one of the largest social media companies out in the world today.

So if you have a startup company or product that you believe needs a pivot in direction, that is completely okay. Just a warning tho, there are things you need to consider before you pivot your startup.

 

What Does it Mean to Pivot?

You may be looking at your product and think there is room for change. Maybe you don’t know what is meant by pivot for a startup and that is actually pretty normal. A pivot is primarily a change in the business strategy which is applied for testing out a new approach related to the startup business model after receiving feedback. It is one of the core concepts of the lean startup method – a reason why it is also known as pivot lean startup. Often, companies only have one question to address and need only one aspect to be changed. Furthermore, some things you may have done that you would not have considered a pivot. Maybe you turned one product feature into a new product itself. You could have changed a platform from app to web or vice versa. Have you ever focused on a different customer set or use different technology to build a product? These are all examples of pivots you made for your business. Like all pivots, some worked better than others. The key is to not make a pivot that does nothing but hurts your product and your business.

 

When Should You Pivot?

With a number of hot-shot tech giants like Instagram, Facebook, and Slack, etc. having popularized pivot success, the new-age founders have grown to believe that pivot can be a great success formula for them too. But the truth is that pivoting must only be considered when you have exhausted all the other options. There are some factors that may help you decide if you should pivot. If your company is always trying and failing to overtake your competition. There may be only one aspect of your company that is getting all the attention. There may be no response for your offering in the market. Or simply, your business objective and expectation has changed. These are all signs that it may be time to make a pivot for your startup. In the end, change is sometimes a good thing for your startup. It can open up access to an entire new group of new customers. Make sure you know what you want to pivot to though because the last thing you want to do is make a pivot and ruin the chances of your business to make money. And if you are not making money, that is not good.