Tell Ten People

I like to read entrepreneurial books. A lot of the same stories and ideas come up, but sometimes it’s more the way that someone phrases something that hooks you than the idea. An idea isn’t just a thing: it needs to be given in a way that it will latch into someone’s brain, it needs something extra to make it instantly or powerfully understandable.

“Tell Ten People” is a good idea for testing products that comes up again and again: before you put your book, your product or whatever in front of customers, tell ten people, friends or partners or colleagues that you trust about what you’re doing. If none of them give you more than an “OK” then you’ve probably not got a winning idea. Maybe you have a good idea if you have but you’ve not hit on a winning expression of it.

A thought for today: tell ten people about your research. Ten people who you know and you can trust to listen. Tell them why you do it, how you do it and what you’ve got as a result. You’re not looking to hopefully convince them the way that an entrepreneur would, you’re just hoping that they get it. If they do, great. If they don’t, ask them about what information they needed.

The more you talk about your research and the more feedback you get, the better you will get at showing people what you do.