So you've spent several weeks defining a new product strategy for your enterprise. You've met with engineering, marketing, and IT. You've overseen the creation of the business case, the user stories, even the schedule.
Suddenly, it comes to you: This isn't going to work.
The idea is a good one, it's just that the context doesn't seem right. Something isn't clicking. It's time for an executive decision.
You pivot!
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
"Pivoting is important... You've figured out all the steps already and it's just an easy way to say I didn't fail, I'm just changing direction," said Cap Watkins, a UX (user experience) designer at Amazon, during a keynote speech at the Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference in Halifax last month. "It's really important to know you're not stuck with the thing you've done... You're just turning around and doing something differently."
Cap Watkins. Pose atypical.
The tech world is full of famous pivots, Watkins observed. A Burbn iPhone app became Instagram. Tools created for the MMOG Game Neverending became Flickr. Evan Williams and Biz Stone invented Twitter when they realized podcasting was a bore. A fundraising and union organizing site called ThePoint turned into Groupon. Zoosk, where Watkins was a senior designer, was a polling site. Formspring was a survey platform.
The idea of pivoting isn't Watkins's alone. It's a concept that's been making the rounds for awhile. Though it's typically applied to tech startups, it can apply wherever flexibility is valued.
"A pivot is when you examine your business assumptions, calculate the results of your efforts, and, if they're found wanting, change course -- either radically, or incrementally," wrote Tony Wanless, CEO of Knowpreneur Consultants, in a blog last year. And he mentioned that pivoting can be as important for long-term organizations as it is for startups.
Cap Watkins made his observations in the context of a talk on getting projects underway. During the creative process, it can be tough to get started if one overthinks the matter. "Just start iterating," Watkins said. "Become a mad scientist." And if that leads you to a point where your strategy needs changing, then go ahead and change it.
Does Watkins often pivot in his work? Not at Amazon, he says, since projects are shorter. But in his own professional work, "I pivot a lot. You'll be going in one direction and you'll find you've solved the wrong problem... You keep dropping things and adding them back."
In the end, endeavors like Zoosk and Formspring, both of which Watkins worked on, testify to the value of switching course enthusiastically and without regrets.
@Chris -- I don't think so. By using Netflix as an example, you've basically defined flip-flop as a "We're going to do this... oh wait, it's going badly we're going to reverse that", where pivots are "let's solve this problem instead".
Perhaps I didn't make myself clear on the point that a flip flop is not the same as a pivot. A flip-flop is a reveral of decision or stance, while a pivot is a change in direction. The meanings are clear in the words themselves -- flip specifically means a 180 degree change in direction, while a pivot is simply a turn. The point of the article is clearly focused on changes of direction, not reversals.
I said "The flip-flop was less a pivot and more an realization of its own mortality." because they didn't pivot. Pivot indicates a change in direction, and they weren't offering new services as in much they were splitting what they had, which goes in the same direction and thus not a pivot. They flip-flopped when they realized they weren't invincible and couldn't just ignore their target market.
@ smkinoshita, without having to rehash just what the whole catastrophy entailed, you clearly have completely missed the entire context of both discisions made by both Hastings and the BOD.
I think flip flop takes on a more negative connotation than pivot, but in essence it is a change in direction in an attempt to solve an existing issue without scraping the whole project.
I woke up this morning thinking about a poem by Rainer Maria Wilke about the Biblical story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, which Tim O'Reilly quotes in his talks about the importance of tackling "big, hairy, audacious goals:" "Work on Stuff that Matters:"
There's a wonderful poem by Rainer Maria Rilke that talks about the biblical story of Jacob wrestling with an angel, being defeated, but coming away stronger from the fight. It ends with an exhortation that goes something like this: "What we fight with is so small, and when we win, it makes us small. What we want is to be defeated, decisively, by successively greater things."
My favorite part of the Qwikster fiasco was where they failed to make sure the Twitter ID Qwikster was available, and it turned out to belong to this stoner slacker guy here in San Diego. As far as I can see, he was the only person who benefitted from Netflix's strategy. He picked up several thousand Twitter followers.
Good point about solving the wrong problem, smkinoshita. That seems to be the most typical pivoting situation. And usually it involves a creative project that takes a completely different direction while incorporating the techniques and tools of the original one.
There is an art to knowing when to back down, for sure, and when to hang in there. Sometimes, as you say, Mashka, success can be just another big push away. Other times, though, it's clear there's no "there" there.
Case in point: RIM. Is it time for them to give up? Or would hanging in there for the next product round prove the tide-turner?
I think there's a key difference between pivoting and flip-flopping. In the Netflix example, there were many signs of trouble long before trouble with the split started -- mostly in the form of CEO Hastings' ignoring a lot of the input coming in from the target market. There were a lot of complaints about people disliking previous changes (such as a major interface change), but Netflix seemed to just ignore its customer base, thinking it was an invincible rising star. The flip-flop was less a pivot and more an realization of its own mortality.
Pivots as Mary has described them are more "we're focusing on the wrong problem" that are far bigger changes than even splitting a company. A Netflix pivot would either have a different use for its delivery system (for example, business software instead of movies) or experience (for example, having mini-theatres for rent that allow consumers to watch movies or play games on the big screen complete with snack bar)
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