Where to start when your business isn't running

Things not going the way you want them to is more the norm then the exception. So you better know how to fix them.

But before you can fix things, you need to understand them. Here is a good starting point:

Name

Give your problem a name. Otherwise your brain can’t adress the problem.

Hypothesis

Form a hypothesis. This has three elements:

1. What symptoms are part of the problem? Which are a seperat problem?
2. What do you think is the main cause of the problem?
3. What effect will this problem cause, if left unsolved for the next 12 month

Once done, you will see loads of other problems.

Write them down.

Repeat the process, until you have no meaningful problems left in your mind.

Remember: You can’t solve everything at once. Pick the one with the biggest impact if left unchecked.

Next, design some experiments, to test your assumptions about the cause of the problem.

An experiment looks like this:

Experiment

• We belief that […]
• To verify that, we will […]
• And measure […]
• We are right, if […]
• This might look like this:

 This might look like this

Example

• We belief, that [our customers don’t buy from us, because they don’t understand our product]
• To verify that, we will [design 10 different ways to explain the product to them and test each with 100 prospects.]
• And measure [how many prospects we can close with each of them]
• We are right, if [one of those ways has at least a 50% higher close rate then our initial approach]

Remember: Understanding the problem is half the solution.