80-8 rule

Rayhan Abdulmughnee — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:36:00 +0000

You may have heard of the 80-20 rule, but do you know about the 80-8 rule? According to Bain & Company, 80% of the companies believe they deliver a “superior experience” to customers. But only 8% of the customers agree.

Ouch!

Do you believe you deliver superior service to your customers AND do your customers agree? Here’s another question. Do your competitors’ customers believe they get superior customer service from your competitors?

Seems like an opportunity for you to innovate and improve your service and gain bigger market share?

Don’t worry, be crappy

Rayhan Abdulmughnee — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:50:17 +0000

So says Guy Kawasaki. This may seem surprising coming from a former uber Apple evangelist, but it is one of the core philosophies Guy hones into every start-up company he has founded or funded.

One of the reasons why start-up companies fail is because the management insists on making their product perfect before shipping. A fatal mistake, especially in a technology industry. Technology changes rapidly and a product can always be made better. If you wait to incorporate all the new features, someone else will probably beat you to market.

But, before you go off and start shipping crap, take heed to the next suggestion from Guy:

“Churn, baby, churn. I’m saying it’s okay to ship crap–I’m not saying that it’s okay to stay crappy. A company must improve version 1.0 and create version 1.1, 1.2, … 2.0. This is a difficult lesson to learn because it’s so hard to ship an innovation; therefore, the last thing employees want to deal with is complaints about their perfect baby. Innovation is not an event. It’s a process.”

So there you have it. Start shipping your products now. Keep innovating and let your competitors play catch up with you.

Rayhan Abdulmughnee » Innovation

80-8 rule

Don’t worry, be crappy