Episode Transcript
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[Music]
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Everything can be improved, iterated and refined.
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And if you don't think that's true, maybe you haven't analyzed it enough.
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Calculator choices carefully considered.
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Absolutely analytical.
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This episode is brought to you by Clubhouse,
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the first project management platform for software development
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development that brings everyone on every team together to build better products. Visit
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this URL clubhouse or one word.io/10theword for more information. We'll talk more about
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them during the show. Analytical is part of the Engineered Network to support our shows
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including this one. Head over to our Patreon page and for other great shows, visit engineered.network
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today. Pivot. I love the idea of pivot in startups.
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I mean, the term is broad generally used and abused. I'd say it's, I think it's fair to
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say it's pretty very very much abused in that space but in the end pivot really
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means that I'm going to try an entirely different business strategy, business
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model or a business objective but I'm gonna use pretty much the same people,
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the same equipment, same talent pool, you know whatever you know I'm not gonna
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change that much as the direction. There are lots of opinions about whether
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pivots are a good idea or not. You know if you could safely pivot once, twice,
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three times or so but ultimately there's no really true pre-criteria that you
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could use to determine if a pivot is generally a good or bad idea. It's completely up to,
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I think, firstly, assessing the expertise that you have currently available to you and
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its applicability to the new thing that you want to chase. But not just that, also, if
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there is really an opportunity, a good opportunity that's worth pursuing in that new direction
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that you want to head. So back in the bad old days, which to be honest, really wasn't
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that far back, we wouldn't say pivot, it was more a new
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direction or re-evaluating or reassessing viability,
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something like that. But you know, hey, pivot is one
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syllable. And that kind of says it. So I guess, you know, hey,
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why not? So pivoting really just comes back to that
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reassessment process. So that's actually what I want to explore
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here. So simple question, why reassess? Yeah, if what you're
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doing is working, then why? Yeah, why would you? I mean,
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And when is a good time to analyze your own performance, your own success, whether the...
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And that could really apply to anything that you do and it could also just be you.
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It could be your side projects, your company that you either run or work for or you're
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just a part of, you know, whatever it might be.
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And like I say, at the end of every episode of this show, I always think it's a good time
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to analyze something. So in the context of reassessment, it comes back to two fundamental things.
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Why did you start doing what you were doing?
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And then, what were your goals?
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I'm really hoping that you did set some goals and I refer you back to the very first episode
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of this show. So what does good look like?
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And what does success look like?
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And by that I mean, what does it look like to you personally, to you professionally,
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and from a company perspective, from an income perspective, happiness as well, how much you're
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changing the world if you think you can actually do that for example. All of those things. What does
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success and what does good look like in those contexts? So periodically I think you should check
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in with yourself, your team, your company, whatever it might be and measure yourself against a few key
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questions. First of all, are you achieving or on track to achieve what you set out to in your goals
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in the beginning? And then, are there other opportunities that you could be exploring
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but you aren't because you don't have the time, the space, or the bandwidth to chase those
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opportunities? Before we go any further, I'd like to talk about a sponsor for this episode and that's
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Clubhouse, the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone on
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every team together to build better products. Clubhouse was built from the outset with agile
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Users have reported creating less duplicates and navigations very fast using a common board
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Thank you once again to Clubhouse for sponsoring the Engineered Network.
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Looking at the time component, you could always get more people.
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Then again, if that's just you, that's not really an option.
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And if you're a business, then you might not be able to afford to do that
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from a cost perspective, for getting more people, that costs more money.
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So if your only option to create space
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to try a new direction is to stop some
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or all of what you're doing, then that might be your only viable option.
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Sometimes people get stuck in a loop. Some say stuck in a rut, you know what I mean,
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grinding away at the same thing day in, day out,
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week in, week out, and not really achieving what they set out to.
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Now, in those cases, you have to go back and ask,
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did you set a criteria for success?
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And did you set goals? Again, I refer you back to episode one.
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I think it's totally fine though, to go back midway, partway,
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anyway through an endeavor and reassess, even if you didn't have any goals to start with,
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but you need to start by figuring out what your goals are retrospectively and then reassess
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against those. I also think it's really important before you change direction to consider the fallout
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and any of the impacts or backlash that you're likely to get, if there's likely to be any,
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from stopping what you're currently doing.
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Some people are going to love what you're doing right now, whatever you're making, whatever
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you're doing, and they're not going to be happy if you just pull up and stop entirely.
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Embrace yourself for that because they will tell you about it.
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Believe me, you'll hear about it.
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Thinking that existing customers will continue to want what you're making or doing just because
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you are you or your company is your company is flawed thinking.
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It's more driven by, is it a good product?
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Is it a good service? Is it entertaining or isn't it?
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Is it what they want?
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And if you don't give them what they want, then ultimately they'll find it somewhere
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else. They will not just follow you because you are you and they will not follow your company
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just because your company is your company.
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So the critical things to consider are things like what am I or what are we giving up by
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pivoting? Can we afford to lose that?
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Are we prepared to lose that?
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And with that, of course, that would mean, are we prepared to suffer any of those consequences
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as a result? What are our honest and realistic chances of success in the new direction?
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And does the best outcome of our new direction outweigh the current outcomes from our current
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direction? Now, a lot of that, you might say, "Maybe that's common sense."
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Then again, what's common sense?
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I'm not sure I know anymore. I suppose what I've observed in others and honestly to some extent in myself as well
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is that we get excited about new ideas and new directions and new plans and that brings
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a whole lot of enthusiasm and that's fine in good measure so long as we don't let that
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get in the way of what we're actually trying to achieve.
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So I guess then it comes back to keeping your excitement and newfound enthusiasm in check,
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whilst also being brutally honest about your current endeavors.
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Are they really so bad that you have to pivot?
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Would minor tweaks to what you're doing in the here and now have incrementally more benefit
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than suffering such a big upheaval and all the ramifications of that upheaval from pivoting?
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It comes back a lot to setting your goals and being honest about where you are and where
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you want to be heading.
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Think it through and don't get carried away with the excitement of a new direction.
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That excitement is not going to last long.
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And once you pivot, you might not be able to pivot back if you want to.
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It might be too late.
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That said, it could be the best decision you'll ever make and then again, it could also be
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the worst. Just think it through.
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It's up to you.
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If you're enjoying Analytical and want to support the show, you can via Patreon at patreon.com/johncigie
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or one word, with a thank you to all our patrons and a special thank you to our silver producers
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Carsten Hansen and John Whitlow, and an extra special thank you to our gold producer known
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only as R.
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and beyond that, it's all really, really appreciated.
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Beyond that, there's lots of other ways to help like leaving a rating or review on iTunes,
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favoriting that episode in your podcast player app, or sharing the episode or the show with
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your friends via social. All of these things help others discover the show and can make a huge difference too.
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I'd personally like to thank Clubhouse once again for sponsoring the Engineered Network.
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If you're looking for an easy to use software development project management solution that
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everyone can use, specifically visit this URL clubhouse or oneword.io/10theword to check
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it out and give it a try. It'll surprise you just how easy it can be.
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Analytical is part of the Engineer Network and you can find it at engineer.network and
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you can follow me on the Fediverse at [email protected] or the network on Twitter at engineered_net.
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Accept nothing. Question everything.
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It's always a good time to analyze something.
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I'm John Chiechi, thanks again so much for listening.
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[Music]
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