Consultants Don't Pivot, Founders Do | Hacker News Reader

Consultants Don't Pivot, Founders Do

steveblank.com

24 pointstessro9 comments

> “Great, but we’re having a bit of a problem getting traction.” (Anytime I hear an entrepreneur talking in euphemisms, I get nervous.)

Haha, I love that line. It's so true

Exactly. If you're having problem getting traction it cannot be going great.

As a consultant that does understand customer development (unlike the example which paints all contractors with the same brush) I feel like this Steve post is based on iffy logic.

Our clients pay us to be highly opinionated; in fact, they hired us over the other guy because we were willing to give them the straight goods even when the news isn't good.

In a properly functioning founder-consultant relationship, it is the founder's job to take all of the factors into consideration and pivot when appropriate. The consultant has no business making this call; we can only inform and opine.

What we can and should do (as consultants) is help the founder exercise control over the scope, thereby allowing the Blank-approved Minimum Viable Product to actually be minimal.

In fact, we're in a better position to help scope growth than a founder/developer, or someone working for a founder. We're emotionally more removed (but still passionate) such that we can say no to features that distract from the core value of the business proposition.

Pivoting is much harder when development strays from the minimum viable product.

Most product managers don't pivot either, unfortunately. Pivoting is even harder than keeping things simple (which most product managers can't do, either).

Great product managers don't pivot on noise.

Why the random dig on product managers? Most [fill in the blank]s don't pivot either.

I think it really comes down to the organization's culture and the executive leadership. PMs will often be asked to create a roadmap, and then that roadmap gets approved, and then features get executed against that. If that is the structure then it is hard for anyone to pivot.

(Speaking as a PM) --- because it's the PM's job to pivot.

Not disputing that but sometimes the org around a PM just won't allow for it.

I'd argue that by the time a business reaches a point in it's lifecycle where it's established enough to need a Product Manager, it is not likely to need to pivot. Or with much less frequency than if it were a pre-revenue startup. I hear Product Manager and I think established product in market with substantial revenue stream and legacy customers to support.

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