Do we need to be 100% sure before activating our strategy

Yesterday, I got the below comment on LinkedIn. The discussion was about Elon Musk's decision to charge for the blue check.

"...It's always good to do the homework first before angering customers with immature pricing decisions, wouldn't you agree?"?

The comment was from someone with more experience and depth in pricing & monetization strategies than me - a Managing Partner in a well-established global consulting firm. That said, I'm afraid I entirely have to disagree with his point of view. And this is why.

Certainty is not possible about anything; literally anything. Our world is incredibly complex. You can have more or less confidence. You can be confident about certain things, but you never know. However, this doesn't mean you can't take action.?

Suppose you embrace the idea that you can be more or less confident but never totally certain. In that case, you can think of the entire process of creating and activating your #strategy as a journey to confidence (which is the essence of a design-driven culture).

The most powerful thing about design - design as mindset, design as a way of being in the world - is that it is a journey to confidence.

#Design inevitably starts as a little spark of an idea. That idea is rarely good. We build it. And we get told what's wrong with it. So, we break it, and we build it again slightly better, slightly high resolution, and again and again, until we have enough confidence to say this will never work, let's move to the next thing, or yes, this version is the one; let's now get this out into the world.?

Great design is always a journey from an idea to an evolving product, service, or business in the market. And, if you think of your end goal as certainty, you will fail in getting there.?

Nevertheless, I am empathic to the many of us who like to be certain and need to do the homework before acting. There is a reason. It's in our DNA. There is a physical reward in our body when our brain comes to closure. Likewise, we get a physical reward when we tick something off our to-do list. But it's false happiness. It's a false certainty.

So instead, striving for confidence, enough confidence, to take the next step, and the next step is how we need to think about strategy and business.

Now, regarding the essential questions: how to charge and how much to charge? I always refer to the difference between COST, PRICE, and VALUE.?

COST is straightforward to define: the amount incurred on the inputs (raw materials, salaries, rent, interest, taxes, duties, etc.) for producing any product or service. In other words, the money spent.?

PRICE is also as easy as COST to understand. It is what it costs you to make + PROFIT. And depending on the business, profit can be between 5% and 80% (and even more). Many factors drive this percentage, and one of them (a big one) is RISK: high risk, high reward.?

VALUE, quite the reverse, is subjective. It's dependent on the buyer to determine value. Most of us think it's up to us, but it's not how it works.

Suppose I make goods, and I get to determine my price. If I price it too low, I may sell a lot but with low margins. On the other hand, I may not sell a lot if I price it too high, but my profit margins will be huge. So, I - the seller - determine the price. The buyer then chooses to buy or not. He gets to say to himself, is this fair to me, is this based on my needs and wants? Is it important to me? Do I see value in this? And when value exceeds price, buyers give you money.

Many factors drive value. And the most significant driver is an emotional one. There is something secret happening inside each person to make them value something (whether it's sneakers, T-shirts, or Twitter blue checks). It's how it makes them feel (for example, they can feel a sense of accomplishment, empowerment, or success).?

As a CEO, founder, or business leader, your primary job is to understand your customer's pain point and what this pain point is making him feel. Then, you market and sell towards that - the emotional part. This is where the money is.

How do you do it? You test, as Elon did. And when your audience is angry or polarized, you know that you are tapping into something important; something with VALUE. It may seem counter-intuitive, but no one would have cried foul if people didn't care about their blue check.

People will not necessarily buy a blue check. They are trying to get more attention. They are trying to look like how they feel about themselves. They are looking to attain a greater social status.

??Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.?? Warren Buffet