HELEN KONTOZOPOULOS
  • HOME
  • BIO
  • TEACHING
  • SPEAKING
    • IWW
  • ART
  • BLOG

The importance of industry and market research for your business plan with Howard Rosen, CEO of Lifewire

1/31/2014

0 Comments

 
The importance of industry and market research for your business plan with Howard Rosen, CEO of Lifewire
By Helen Kontozopoulos, MEIC

First posted on Mobile Experience Innovation Lab, OCAD University, Jan 2014

The challenge for any business is to collect the large amounts of research and then be able to condense it into an impressive (but brief!) twenty-five-page business plan. Howard Rosen, the CEO of Lifewire, says that the plan needs to be succinct yet comprehensive and match what you are saying.  If it isn’t, the listener will wonder why you don’t just get to the point and “get to the meat” of your business.

The “meat” of course comes from all the research you have done previously. In this two-part video, Howard discusses the importance of collecting research and validating it.


Show Me!
For Howard, it always came down to the basic question “does it work?” He knew he had an excellent idea for mobile health, but the more he talked to people the more he realized “I better make sure this thing works!” People were always asking him to show them the product, to prove it to them, and to match what he was saying by what he was showing them. Research helped him prove his product and prepare to present it in his business plan and to his customers.


Research, Research, Research
The importance of research is to test your idea, to see if and how it works in the real world—not just in your head. Is your idea really that brilliant? You might think it’s an excellent idea, until your research shows that you are wrong. Discovering that your idea might be conflicting with your research is a good thing: it means something has to be changed.
Part of Howard’s research process was to reach out to 3rd parties to help him validate his assumptions about his product. One of the key elements of planning is using 3rd parties that can help you confirm your assumptions and give you direction on how to proceed with your product.


Key Elements to Planning: 3rd Party Validation
  • Advisors
  • Thought Leaders in the industry
  • Professionals (Lawyers, accountants, etc…)
The validation of your idea gives decision makers such as funding bodies a reason to choose you instead of your competitor.


Getting Out There
In the “Knowing Your Market” video, Howard stresses the need to not only know your industry’s market from reports, but also go out to your market’s environment. For him, he went to hospitals, doctor offices, and any place that provided health care. You need to see how your market perceives your industry and its services and to delve deeper into your customers’ true needs. Howard says, “Just because someone says they need something, doesn’t actually mean they need [it], that’s what they perceive they need.” By going into these markets, you test those perceived needs and compared them to the real needs.
Getting out there and testing your product gives you an excellent opportunity to see what changes you need to make. What you think is simple to do, the user might find confusing and difficult. “Knowing how to evolve [your product] for the marketplace and [for] the changing marketplace” becomes an ongoing process in your product development.


It never really ends
Research never really ends. Even when the business plan is written, research continues as you build upon all the knowledge you have accumulated over time. For any new market you enter, a new business plan has to be created, researched, and validated.
Part 1 – Writing out your business plan
Part 2 – Knowing your Market
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Authored by:
    Picture

    Helen Kontozopoulos

    Co-Founder and Chief Tech Evangelist at ODAIA.ai 
    Adjunct Professor, at the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada

    Archives

    October 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    March 2016
    November 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    June 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright 2022 HELENISSOCIAL

  • HOME
  • BIO
  • TEACHING
  • SPEAKING
    • IWW
  • ART
  • BLOG