Refine ... Iterate ... Pivot

Creating something new and better is seldom a smooth start to finish process. More often it's a start, test, iterate, refine, re-start, re-test, re-iterate, get frustrated and quit!!  No!!  Don't quit ... that's too much like "fail".  The "in" word these days is pivot ... we didn't quit, we did a pivot. So maybe we're not moving in the original direction we had in mind, maybe we took a hard turn to the right or left. But ... we're still moving, and that's (usually) good!

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It starts with an idea, it always does! The first question, "Who cares? Are there any customers for our idea?" If the answer is yes, we think so, move on to the next stage of development: a] create a business model that will fit our target customers and our idea; and b] develop our product and/or service in steps that can be tested and refine (agile engineering, it's called). If our first customers are happy with the results, find more and more customers and build up our venture. If our first customers aren't all that thrilled, iterate either our business model or our product/service, or both!

So now what?  Take a look where this fits with "the rest of the story".  Hint: A2