The Friday Few Observations for week 40 of 2024

Greetings from Alamo where it is 104 degrees in early October....

Had a quick observation that has been running around in my head after a series of really interesting business meetings.

Unless you really know how to make a complex product right now that deeply connects with a customer base looking to get out of massive pain (think cancer cure in a pill), this is the WRONG TIME to be trying to make a product.

Why?

Because the biggest companies in the world are spending all the money they can find to fund this new compute power and the energy it is going to take to power it.

They are doing this with the aim of us having a physical device (phone, glasses, earbuds) that we interface with to run our lives and once they have our attention they will set up a walled garden and deliver almost all the simple products we need with their own branded products (Think Safeway's Select Brand in the grocery store).

So should we all go try and work for Open AI?

Sure, if your 25 and live in San Francisco and can crack the code of being valuable to them.

However for the rest of us here is what I think might make more sense.

Get in front of a white board like our image above shows and start writing out the cohorts of people you currently serve.

Describe them in every possible detail and then ask yourself, WHAT ISN'T GOING TO CHANGE IN THEIR LIFE IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS?

As you describe them and the pains they are living with currently you are flexing your TACTICAL EMPATHY.

Now list out the goods and services and advice you are providing them currently and make some bold claims about what these cohorts should be doing in the next 10 years.

We call this COMMERCIAL TEACHING because the provider of service sees 100's of use cases where the customer just has their own experience to reference.

When you combine your tactical empathy with commercial teaching for your customers sparks fly and business grows!

In summary, don't get sidetracked about making the new new thing, just get really good at using the new tools to help your customers innovate in your area of expertise.

That is what I am noticing, how about you?

Drew