Decisions

Feedback is Data

Customer discovery paves the path to profitability.

This really is the work for entrepreneurs starting a new business. Customer discovery requires trust in your early moves, obsessive curiosity, patience, thick skin, humility, an interest in being wrong, discernment, and a willingness to adapt. No problem, right?

For many entrepreneurs, impartial feedback can be scary. Customer discovery puts ideas on the hook, and colliding new conversations may contradict past assumptions. That’s the point! Interacting with the market you seek to serve allows us to learn from no in a way that gets us to yes.

As you collaborate with those who criticize what you’re building, learn why naysayers debate your hypotheses. Be humble. Either attack the massive lift to change the product and even the target customer or make your concept more compelling to win over those who care.

The more you learn from others, the more you’ll recognize supply and be able to meet true demand. Collecting real-world data is human and intellectual capital that attracts more network and financial capital. 

Beyond the psychology of it all, customer discovery can feel like a drag because it is often a protracted process. The time commitment is real. This market exploration can be slow at first and may seem less necessary as signals of traction emerge. The potential need to rethink ideas makes feedback scary too. As always, if the entrepreneurial lifestyle was easy, career nirvana would not be so fleeting. Knowing this, we can seek honest feedback that strengthens our value proposition to eventually go further in the right direction.

When learning from the perspective of others, it’s imperative to remember that feedback is data.

Collect, organize, and examine data from feedback like a scientist. Inference is more informed with data. Decisions that are made become more in tune with reality as you continue to collect and learn with data.

As you translate decisions into action, you must also find your own way. Even with good intent, people who provide you with feedback are doing so based on their experience. The experience of others is based on their own past, and no feedback is likely to fully harmonize with your vision. There are many ways to navigate the idea maze. Gather feedback like power-ups in a video game and use diversified data to guide your quest toward product-market fit.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Executionist

Nobody cares about our great ideas.
They care how we make ideas happen.

This moniker is a tribute to movement. It honors ingenuity by recognizing all who apply consistent action to nudge the world.

Executionists appreciate planning but don’t get stuck in endless brainstorms. They’re not rushing into bad ideas, but they are often the first to tinker. Action-based execution is why the title of my first book, podcast, and keynotes remain true. It even grounds the preface of You Don’t Need This Book, which we will revisit here:

There are good reasons why we have so many clichés about talk being cheap. Movement is required when it’s time to get things done. Cheers to so many who don’t stop at ideas. Heretics who build when others don’t. Leaders who choose to make a ruckus without permission, and in so doing, go beyond the status quo by evolving ideas into reality.

Executionists show up.
Executionists experiment.
Executionists connect dots.
Executionists are consistent.
Executionists learn by doing.
Executionists leverage uncertainty.
Executionists don’t require a roadmap.
Executionists courageously communicate.
Executionists take time to be detailed-oriented.
Executionists are organized to stay efficient.
Executionists know when to shift gears.
Executionists add pieces to a puzzle.
Executionists are Serendipitists.
Executionists choose to care.
Executionists keep promises.
Executionists invite blame.
Executionists give credit.

Brewed From Within
#45 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Decisions

When questions linger, they get heavier. Paralysis can even set in, especially when a decision feels important.

Ambition fades and holding desire invites unhappiness until a future state is achieved. Thinking through the idea maze, strategic planning, and talking tactics is wise, but mental jams are usually not from a lack of choices, but instead, too many. Thoroughly consider the options, then maintain momentum by simply making each decision.

Extra Shot

The best decision is the one you make.

This is not as easy as it sounds. Big or small, a fear of making the wrong decision is ever present. Fortunately, while life or death decisions do occur, most of the time, a wrong decision only requires resources to make it right. Poor decision-making adds up, but if it’s just one decision that’s part of a longer sequence, even slight missteps can move us closer to where we want to be.

Brewed From Within
#50 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Not to Lose

Whether it was traveling with the teams my dad coached as a kid, playing club soccer at an early age, monopolizing my time in high school, playing all through college, or being the focus of my first entrepreneurial venture, soccer was a part of my identity for over 20 years. I’ve since shifted toward the more secret exercise of golf, but memories remain, and sports have so many playful metaphors.

Sports and other organized activities help us push to be our best, and the sense of belonging is the real magic.

No matter the sport, it can be easy to get ahead before slipping into a dangerous trap. Instead of staying sharp by maintaining the offensive pressure that earned an early advantage, it’s natural to start playing not to lose.

In soccer, this often means a team sinks back into an overly defensive formation. Less variety invites frantic desperation, and the added pressure often leads to the opposing squad scoring an equalizing goal. Even if the need for another goal shifts your team back into a more balanced attack, the momentum has shifted.

When applied to business, getting ahead and then playing not to lose can be seen all over the map. For instance, snagging a few early adopters, then assuming customer discovery is over. Hiring new talent, then just hoping everyone can work together. Launching a new product with existing customers, then not supporting them through the chasm of change. Securing product-market fit, then avoiding innovation due to a misguided sense of risk. Finding generous mentors, then forgetting to nurture relationships. Those are just a few ways we get ahead, then play to lose, but many leaders are lulled into this trap.

Tactics to stay ahead differ based on situational factors, but when in doubt, trust that uncertainty is certain. Be strategic to avoid recklessness, then maintain pressure and stay on the offensive by leaning into the pain.

As you find fresh ways to serve customers, continue celebrating milestones and stay ahead with more initiative to keep playing beyond the fear of losing.

Brewed From Within
📖 Entrepreneurship

By Ben McDougal, ago

Airport Foot Massage

Scripted ice breakers are usually lame, but a fun one invites participants to share something that others may not know about them. There are many ways to approach such a prompt, but a response I once threw in the mix was my unassuming indulgence in foot massages at airports.

After traveling, there’s something bougie about having your tired feet rubbed while endless strangers pass by. Along with mental relation in a very public environment, tightness can be melted after a conference, team meetup, golfcation, or whenever you had fun on your feet.

Transitions came to mind when a recent airport masseuse was whisking my feet into mashed potatoes. A tension arrived as the artisan prepared to switch from one foot to the next. There was an undercurrent of disappointment in that one foot’s rub was coming to an end, yet this feeling disappeared when the next foot received its first touch of attention.

This tiny transition accentuates the kaleidoscopic variety of shifting twists we experience in endless ways. Unconscious, planned, and unplanned changes happen all around us, yet some transitions bring added avoirdupois or take more time than expected.

The route toward a smooth transition is different for every situation, but one tactic to help navigate any transition is to acknowledge the past, then use the present to concentrate energy toward what’s next.

This seems obvious, but our ego often tries to pull us back to what we may be leaving behind. For example, a sense of loss can be felt when leaving a team or as one steps out of an active leadership role. When something has become part of our identity, it’s no surprise that transition brings tension. Will you still be respected after you’re gone?

When leaders let others lead and depart with a sense of abundance, it takes time, but appreciation will last.

Brewed From Within
#52 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago