I am not a Shark Tank aficionado. Apparently, I am still waiting for that streak of genius within me to sparkle and imagine that innovative idea which I can then launch into a product :-).
However that is not the purpose of my post. I have noticed a few patterns when Shark Tankers [I am guessing that's what the hosts are called] evaluate a product and the company:
Is the product selling? How many products have been sold MoM, YoY, etc., which establishes whether there is a market for the product.
What is the profit margin? A product may be popular but after considering COGS (cost of goods sold) , is there a healthy profit margin.
What extent can it be scaled to? Can we make thousands, millions, billions units of the product to take it to economies of scale.
Although, not everyone of us is an entrepreneur and definitely not going to the next episode of Shark Tank, I believe we can use the above guiding principles in our corporate careers as follows:
Is there a business need? For some us who are enamored by technology, let us make sure that there is a legitimate business need for the technology solution and that we are not just merely chasing the next technology hype on the market.
What is the solution? Some of us are very clear about what the problem is however we need to contribute to the solution as well. In a startup that I used to work for, the CEO had a rule: If you are facing an issue make sure that when you come to the meeting bring at least one solution to your problem.
Is it repeatable? I have led initiatives to champion - project to product - mindset. Projects tend to be tactical with one and done mindset vs. a product has the notion of reuse - build once use many times. Always think if a certain solution can be productized as a service offering.
In short every idea needs to be evaluated in terms of business need, feasibility, and scalability.
Let me know what you think about my take on applying Shark Tank ideas in our day to day lives and please contribute in the comments section with what approach has worked for you.
Your friendly Neighborhood Data Guy
LinkedIn Post: What have I learnt from Shark Tank