Nigel Newton carried home a manuscript that was already rejected by eight publishers. He had no hopes for it. In fact, Newton had no inclination to read it. He, therefore, handed it to his eight-year daughter and sought her feedback. Alice read those 50-odd pages in one go and rushed to her father with excitement. Alice had never read something like this before. She wanted to know what happens next in the story. But, Nigel was disinterested. When his daughter continued to pester him for months, he finally took the trouble to find the remaining part of the manuscript.
Eventually, he signed up the author to a modest contract. But, he printed only 500 copies of the novel. That book has since then broken all the records in history. The book is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Today, there are hundreds of millions of Harry Potter books in print worldwide.
But, how did all the experienced publishers go wrong in assessing the potential of this book? Even Nigel was skeptical and printed only 500 copies!
Alice simply loved the book. She did not worry about the design of the cover page. She did not work out the ROI from distribution rights, movies, theme parks, etc.
We also try to guess what is on our customer's minds instead of asking the customers directly. We prefer to ask our customers for their feedback instead of observing their natural responses after experiencing our products and services. It is essential to test our prototype with customers before a full-scale launch.
Metrics:
What are the new products and services you are planning to launch?
Are you relying only on market research?
Prepare a prototype and test it on real customers.
Watch out for their natural reactions - excitement, words they use to describe their experiences, frowns, etc. Feedbacks, on the other hand, are more calibrated and politically correct. They are not as valuable.
Learn from the test, modify your products and then launch.
Subodh
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