The Enterprise Product Manager and his Online Consumer Startup

I've been a product manager going on 20 years, almost exclusively in the enterprise B2B space, both as an employee of huge companies and as a consultant. Earlier this year I had an idea around helping people learn about wine in an easy, social and inexpensive way. It just so happens that I have some good friends who are wine importers. One conversation around a the fire pit on the deck last Spring and we were off! It took us a while to get things moving, but we just launched our MVP for the German market. BTW, for now, this is just my "side hustle" -- I still earn my living as a product strategy and management consultant and trainer!

As someone used to attacking large, highly complex problems, delivering something a bit simpler to consumers was an odd yet exhilarating experience. Here are a few of my key takeaways so far:

• Having a simpler customer was a nice change. In enterprise B2B, you've got to worry about the decision-makers, economic buyers, admins and others. It was nice to have these archetypes rolled up into a single consumer (with maybe an influencer or two)
• There are a ton of inexpensive, easy-to-use platforms available to launch an online store, collaborate and market. One shouldn't underestimate the work (and stress!) required, but we got our MVP up and running in very little time for very little money < €200 (easily) in terms of technology
• The tendency to design for yourself rather than your consumer is much stronger and subtle in the consumer space. Getting early feedback from people who haven't been polluted by your ideas is critical (and humbling)
• Getting technical and creative work done on the cheap isn't that easy (or cheap). I tried to get some graphics and animation work done on Fiverr, for example, and it was a nightmare in terms of the time required to establish a relationship and get usable results! For us, it turned out to be much more cost-effective to use local talent where the cost was obvious up front.

Anyway, this has been an adventure! We're waiting to see how the market responds. We've got no shortage of vision around our "baby". Regardless, getting some startup experience in the consumer space has been fascinating.

You can learn more about me and my consulting and education practice at www.prickril.com.