Snaptalent Lessons Learned - Lesson Two - Indecision Kills | Hacker News Reader

Snaptalent Lessons Learned - Lesson Two - Indecision Kills

jamiequint.com

40 pointsjamiequint4 comments

I think this is a challenge that a lot of startups encounter. I've certainly encountered it so far. I think the breakthrough for me was when my dad (good 'ol parents) asked me to describe what I wanted to do in one sentence. Once I did, it became clear how to best focus on what I was trying to accomplish, who I wanted to reach, and how I wanted them to benefit. Sometimes giving yourself some solid guidelines will free you more than anything else. Above all I find that you have to maintain focus. As an entrepreneur I find that you will pick up on many problems that can be solved, and many ways to do so. You have to pick the most important problem to solve, and the way that will solve it the greatest amount is the first one to pursue. My thoughts, from someone that is still learning a lot...

I don't think this blog post is correct. I do not think that "indecision", or "thinking about something as you work on it" was critical to the failure.

The problem did not lie in the indecision or the discussion, the problem lay in a combination of many factors, and the indecision just meant that the problem was discovered later.

Even if the decision had been made in a single day and the product created as fast as possible - all the other issues would have continued to exist, and who is to know what would have happened after launch.

Being slow in making decisions is not a bad idea, particular when your target market is not changing much. In fact, the longer you wait, the more chance you have to research and understand your market properly.

Deciding quickly all the time and chasing new things is not a recipe for success - and it will surely lead to chaos.

The core problem with their business lay in what I call 'concept', and no speed of decision or different approach would have fixed this for them.

I'm not arguing for chasing new things all the time, in fact I'm arguing for the opposite. I think its important to be decisive about a path and not chase new things all the time.

I agree that understanding your market properly is extremely important (see the first post in this series), however its also possible to market research yourself to death. At some point you just need to launch and see what happens.

I would argue that 'concept' was not our problem. Certainly the concept behind the Snaptalent blog network was flawed in its economics, we figured that out and tried to shift focus. Recruitment branding (large campaigns not focused on a single rec) is actually a fairly large market where spend is moving online rapidly. I don't think the analysis that this was an opportunity we were well positioned for was wrong, we just never really pursued it hard enough.

It's an important life skill to learn to differentiate between when you need a decision and when you need the right decision. Applying the wrong strategy to either situation tends to work out poorly.

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