A group of scenes, not erased from my memory, ever since I was 9 years old, we had a neighbor in the chalet next to us on the beach of Mandara, one of the beaches of Alexandria, and this neighbor offered to teach me and my younger brother swimming.
Within the first lesson I started swimming and crossed a distance.I tried to stand and discovered that the depth of the sea is deeper than my height, I began to sink and scenes rolled in front of my eyes to to be burned forever in my memory.
The first scene I drowned and floated only to see the person who trained us standing still, watching me drown yet not moving. I dive and float again and this person is still. My younger brother began to swim towards me to save me. I dive and float and the scene is still repeated and the coach is standing and my brother is moving in my direction. When I float that time, I see my brother beside me and he starts to skip me and continues to swim deeper and dive again as I reach out to hold my brother and hold his hand. At that moment the ends of my legs touched the earth to strike the ground, and with the movement of the wave, my height became longer than the depth of the sea water. Providence saved us, my brother and I thank God… Then we find out later that this coach does not know how to swim!!! Yes, he does not know how to swim. So he doesn’t even know the first thing about swimming to train it.
I see this rascal killer in every mentor, arbitrator or trainer in the field of small enterprises and entrepreneurship making decisions without knowledge. He thinks that he is the only one that can make this project a success. I doubt very much in spite of all that confidence that he suffers from Dunning – Krugereffect.
Marketing is the elixir of life for any project. Marketing begins by looking for the problem or demand, its size, audience, and behavior. Then comes the synthesis of the product that meets the need or solves the problem.Yes, marketing begins before the product reachs its final form.I learned that market study and marketing are the cornerstone of the success of any project. Also, that the secret of failure is the assumption that my personal opinion is that of potential customers.
I remember an experience I learned a lot from. While studying digital marketing in England at eMarketer, as well as studying the subject of user experience for mobile applications UX, the trainer showed us a design for the mobile screen to apply for a smooth Tesco supermarket appliction. The design was very cool and elegant, and then he showed us another design of lower quality. We all thought that the second design was weak and I also believed it was unbalanced. The trainor told us that the second design had been replaced by the first. It was a shock to us. A replacement which is inferior is better!! Yes, the answer was shocking to us. Even though,with the change in the new design ,the conversion rate of visitors to customers increased by 20%.
Consider how this development occurred, it took 6 months. He started by putting together a set of assumptions, for example the “Add to Cart” button, whether it is red, green or white. The answer: “Don’t assume” even if studies say red is better. This variable should always be tested with real users. So we change the color of the “Add to cart” button with the rest of the variables installed and then measure the effect of this change in a real environment with real users. Thus, 2443 different scenarios were developed (different opinions) and then we studied each scenario separately. Until the final design was reached and selection was based on the determination of which variable affects positively in how many users transferred to customers and thus increase the proportion of sales.
A tip for every idea-owner, entrepreneur or businessman, if you are at sea do not listen to the advice of those on the beach. When you come across a tip, suggestion or order, ask the owner of the advice: Is that a personal opinion? Or an opinion based on experience? Or are these best practices? Or is that advice based on principles, foundations and theories? Or are they scientific experiments?Or are there cases that have been studied in the same environment for the same audience?
Beware of some experts, years of real experience are not the same as years spend at seashore watching basketball games to become a basketball expert.
Any opinion that is not based on knowledge can be the cause of killing an emerging project, or an idea that may one day be great.