Home > Creating Success > Product Ideas

Product Ideas

I found that as I developed expertise in an area, product ideas came naturally and without a lot of thought. This was especially true where I also had personal experience as a customer for the potential product. The more challenging job was to separate the profitable from the unprofitable ideas, a task I had intended our product selection criteria to solve.

Regrettably, I put far too much emphasis on the product selection criteria and not enough on market analysis. I never repeated the Porter five-force analysis that I performed as part of my due diligence before founding Banner Blue. I quite simply forgot how valuable it was. I am sure it would have prevented at least one of our errant attempts at diversification.

Paradoxically, while the best product ideas seem to come from personal experience, the best validation comes from outside one's personal experience, colleagues, and friends. The broader I cast my net for information, the more successful were my plans.

< Back to Creating Success | Next: Financing >