To pivot or not to pivot

Of all the concepts under the lean startup umbrella, the pivot is the one that makes me twinge every time I hear it. I talked to someone at a lean startup meetup who was proud to have pivoted six times in under six months. It sounded to me that they were looking for Twitter or Facebook-like growth in one of those ideas and, not finding it within a matter of days or weeks, moved on. I told them that if we had pivoted that many times in our first six months, we wouldn't have survived a year. In hindsight we maybe pivoted once in our first year, once in our third year, and now we're in year six.

Part of the problem is the word itself. "Pivot" has a certain lightness, like dance -- just pivot! There, you're off!

My mental picture of a pivot is turning a column of tanks in the middle of the desert. Your tanks are hauling at full speed to an objective just over the horizon. They're going to mow down anything in the way. New intelligence comes in, is duly considered, found to be accurate, and on command your tanks hang a left to the new objective. Their commitment to reaching the new objective is unwavering.

It wasn't hard to make the turn. Radio in the order and they're off. But you better be careful not to ask that column of tanks to go there -- wait, no, over there -- wait, back to the first place -- wait, just stay still for a little while while we figure things out.

Go ahead and pivot. Do so when customer feedback, hard data, and your gut tell you this path is right and the previous path was wrong. But know that you only get so many chances to pivot before you die in the desert.