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Every startup founder has to go through a new product development process, whether it’s formalized or not. Broadly speaking, the new product development process is the entire process of bringing a product to market, starting with recognizing a marketing opportunity and ending with product launch. For some founders, that process may look like a haphazard “drunken walk,” but others prefer a more structured approach.

For those founders, here are three new product development processes that can help guide you as you work to take your startup from idea to actual product. And considering the fact that research suggests that following a clear, structured new product development process, it’s probably not a bad idea to pick one of these — or a comb...

A story of the surprises that threaten your startup

“Should I swerve or drive right over it?” I had a few milliseconds to decide.

An orange cone that was designed to promote traffic safety was suddenly threatening to cause a traffic accident.

The cone was out of place, tipped over and lying in the middle of the road. It wasn’t where it was intended to be, and it wasn’t doing what it was intended to do.

Surprise hazards can be devastating

Organizations are threatened by surprise hazards, too. A surprise hazard is anything within an organization that was originally intended for good but, in its current form, is harmful to the organization’s ability to achieve its vision, mission, and brand promise.

For a startup with little or no room to swe...

If you’re running a business or a department in a growing enterprise, then you probably face productivity challenges on a regular basis. You’re not alone in that. Over the past decade, I’ve had to juggle a number of projects at the same time, which has stretched my focus to its limits.

There’s plenty of research that says multitasking on a micro level can harm your productivity. When you’re trying to manage multiple projects or businesses, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and let productivity slip. You take on too much work and wind up doing more harm than good.

I recently had the chance to interview Noah Kagan, founder of SumoMe, to find out how he and his team manage to stay so productive (and increase productivity) amid tremendous growth an...

Never before has “fake” been such a household word. But not all “fake” is bad. For entrepreneurs starting out, the right version of “fake it until you make it” is exactly what they should be doing.

An entrepreneur who “fakes it” is someone who takes on challenges even if he has no idea how he’ll solve them, such as accepting an order from a large client without knowing how he’ll get the shipments from China.

That’s the purest form of “faking it,” because it’s aligning his mindset with what he desires while still operating within his means. It’s also biting off more than he can chew but always following through and delivering in the end.

Ultimately, entrepreneurs who don’t push themselves and “fake it” are the ones who aren’t going to make ...

Your brand and professional reputation is the one thing that will set you apart from your competition. Branding is the only tactic you can employ that is truly unique and that your competitors simply can’t replicate completely.

In branding, you’re dealing with the perception of your audience. To be regarded as an expert is what really matters. This isn’t a form of trickery or positioning yourself as a ‘marketing guru.’ It just requires a change in the way you communicate.

Instead of communicating like a beginner with no proven track record, you should be communicating like an expert with lots of knowledge and experience under your belt.

It’s about being yourself, being passionate about what you’re doing and really believing that you are wor...

This infographic highlights advice from billionaires for entrepreneurs.

You’ve finally secured funding. Phew. You can put that pitch deck to rest — for the time being. For now, you have investors. It’s imperative that you build and nurture a relationship with them, and a key part of that is sending regular investor updates on company performance.

Every investor that owns >=3-5% should be fully in the loop on what’s happening in the company until you are so big you don’t need any capital anymore, or their capital is irrelevant. They deserve this, and you may get burned if they get out of the loop.
— Jason Lemkin

Indeed, informed investors are not only happier but also more helpful. Regular updates set the stage for participation, not just dispersing information. They also may help you secure funding in the futur...

No offense to the Peppers, but just because I listen to alternative music and “people like me who listen to alt music” enjoy hearing the Peppers it does not then mean that I want to hear them. I am not “people like me”, I am me. And I want the smart computers behind my favorite services to know me enough to deliver the content I want.

It doesn’t matter which service we talk about. Voice controlled apps like Alexa, Siri, or Google Home. Chat bots in Messenger, Slack, or WeChat. Music stations/playlists from Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Red. Video on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu Plus. I want them to learn MY preferences, and do better for ME.

To keep the reference stories consistent, I’ll stick with music. But you can apply thi...

Marketing and business models might not be the same as they were decades ago. But one thing hasn’t changed: Customers are still any business’s greatest asset. That seems obvious, right?

It should be, but brands can forget that fact all too easily. In the race for the newest shiny things and the largest caches of data, it’s not hard for marketing teams to forget to tailor campaigns toward what customers actually want.

Chatbots are a great example. As sales associates, they can make shopping much more convenient. But as customer service reps, they kind of suck. In fact, when nearly a third of U.S. brands began shifting to automated customer service, the American Customer Satisfaction Index took the steepest dive since the 1990s.

Convenience i...

Earlier this year, we managed to outrank our largest competitor for one of the most competitive keywords in Google Search: presentation software. We did that with a team of 3 people, a page built in Squarespace and with 1% of their funding.

Through a 9-month period between 2015 and 2016, we invested about $70,000 in our content marketing campaigns. It was a long-term investment that has paid itself time and time again. As of today, our organic rankings in Google bring around $70,000 worth of subscriptions *every month*.

Demystifying SEO

SEO is a weird science. Google has been increasingly secretive about what drives their algorithm, which has caused a lot of speculation and inaccurate content.

There’s also a lot of outdated content online....