1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:05,000 - A very trendy and often overused word 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,050 in the context of startups and entrepreneurship 3 00:00:07,050 --> 00:00:10,010 is this notion of disruption. 4 00:00:10,010 --> 00:00:12,000 There's a lot of things that are important 5 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:12,080 about disruption, 6 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:15,000 which is the new product that you're creating 7 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:16,030 and the market you're going after, 8 00:00:16,030 --> 00:00:18,050 you're actually trying to disrupt 9 00:00:18,050 --> 00:00:19,080 what the status quo is. 10 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:20,090 You're trying to create something 11 00:00:20,090 --> 00:00:24,010 that captures people's imagination. 12 00:00:24,010 --> 00:00:26,020 However, you want to be a little careful of it, 13 00:00:26,020 --> 00:00:30,010 because people tend to overuse the notion of disruption 14 00:00:30,010 --> 00:00:33,060 to apply to anything that's incrementally different. 15 00:00:33,060 --> 00:00:35,060 One of the important things to recognize here 16 00:00:35,060 --> 00:00:40,060 is that disruption is significant, versus incremental. 17 00:00:40,060 --> 00:00:43,020 One of the ideas that comes up over and over again 18 00:00:43,020 --> 00:00:45,030 is when you're coming out with a new product 19 00:00:45,030 --> 00:00:47,050 that disrupts an existing market, 20 00:00:47,050 --> 00:00:50,000 where there are existing products, 21 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,020 is that your product does have to be 22 00:00:52,020 --> 00:00:53,060 substantially better, 23 00:00:53,060 --> 00:00:57,000 we like to say 10x better, than the other products. 24 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:58,070 When you think of disruption, 25 00:00:58,070 --> 00:01:00,030 think of it in the context of something 26 00:01:00,030 --> 00:01:03,040 that's at least 10x better than everything else. 27 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,010 Now, with your first product, 28 00:01:05,010 --> 00:01:06,060 especially if your first product 29 00:01:06,060 --> 00:01:08,080 is a minimal viable product 30 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,000 and it's still got lots of problems with it, 31 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:12,050 you might not be in a place 32 00:01:12,050 --> 00:01:16,050 where that first product disrupts the market. 33 00:01:16,050 --> 00:01:17,030 What you're trying to do 34 00:01:17,030 --> 00:01:20,080 is paint a long-term view around disruption 35 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:24,020 and around how your customers are going to use your product. 36 00:01:24,020 --> 00:01:27,010 You're constantly looking for multiple angles 37 00:01:27,010 --> 00:01:29,060 in which your product is disruptive. 38 00:01:29,060 --> 00:01:33,060 Not just by being cheaper or being better 39 00:01:33,060 --> 00:01:37,020 or being a different color or having a different flavor 40 00:01:37,020 --> 00:01:39,000 than the other products in the market, 41 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,050 but actually really meaningfully and dramatically 42 00:01:42,050 --> 00:01:45,020 improving your customer's life 43 00:01:45,020 --> 00:01:47,070 when they're using your particular product. 44 00:01:47,070 --> 00:01:50,090 So, don't use disruption as a cliche 45 00:01:50,090 --> 00:01:52,060 where you fall into this trap of thinking that, 46 00:01:52,060 --> 00:01:53,080 oh, I'm doing something new 47 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:56,020 and I need to disrupt what the status quo is, 48 00:01:56,020 --> 00:01:58,000 but actually look for the dimensions 49 00:01:58,000 --> 00:01:59,090 where you're actually going to start, 50 00:01:59,090 --> 00:02:01,030 through the use of your product, 51 00:02:01,030 --> 00:02:03,030 changing customer behavior 52 00:02:03,030 --> 00:02:05,060 and changing the dynamics of how people think 53 00:02:05,060 --> 00:02:08,050 about whatever category your product is in. 54 00:02:08,050 --> 00:02:09,070 One of the tools you can use 55 00:02:09,070 --> 00:02:11,080 when thinking about disruption, 56 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,020 especially in the context of a market, 57 00:02:14,020 --> 00:02:17,000 is think forward a long period of time. 58 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:19,050 Go forward 10 years into the future 59 00:02:19,050 --> 00:02:22,040 and imagine how things are going to be different 60 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:24,030 in the market that you're going after 61 00:02:24,030 --> 00:02:28,060 with very broad-spread adoption of your product. 62 00:02:28,060 --> 00:02:29,090 There are lots of different categories 63 00:02:29,090 --> 00:02:31,070 that you can apply this to. 64 00:02:31,070 --> 00:02:33,090 Think about, for example, today, 65 00:02:33,090 --> 00:02:37,000 how different the world of communication is 66 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:38,080 as a result of things like Facebook 67 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:40,090 and Twitter and LinkedIn. 68 00:02:40,090 --> 00:02:42,030 And just the dynamics, 69 00:02:42,030 --> 00:02:44,050 whether that communication is business communication 70 00:02:44,050 --> 00:02:46,030 or that communication is politics, 71 00:02:46,030 --> 00:02:48,040 or that communication is just keeping track 72 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:51,060 of what's going on with your friends and family. 73 00:02:51,060 --> 00:02:55,050 With your product, assume the same kind of adoption. 74 00:02:55,050 --> 00:02:56,090 Extremely widespread, 75 00:02:56,090 --> 00:02:58,050 lots of people using your product 76 00:02:58,050 --> 00:03:01,000 in lots of different ways all across the world, 77 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:02,080 and then come back to where you are today. 78 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,060 That's the kind of scale that you need to be thinking about 79 00:03:05,060 --> 00:03:07,080 in the context of disruption, 80 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:10,030 versus just, I launched my product, 81 00:03:10,030 --> 00:03:12,070 and now things got radically disrupted. 82 00:03:12,070 --> 00:03:15,000 Use that long-term timeframe 83 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:16,050 to help actually improve 84 00:03:16,050 --> 00:03:18,040 what you're going after specifically 85 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,000 with the product and the opportunity you're building.