Creating Something People Need: A Business Lesson in Innovation

Editorial note: This reconstructed journal-style retrospective reflects the owner's November 2008 product-development experience. It is archived by historical period; its publication date records when it first appeared on this site.

Creating products people need begins with understanding what will genuinely help them.

I have been spending a great deal of time thinking about what new products we can develop at Entrepreneurs Accounting Academy.

Sales and marketing are important, but there's something equally important that comes before them.

What exactly are we asking people to buy?

It's an uncomfortable question because entrepreneurs naturally become attached to their ideas.

We imagine the possibilities, think about the market, and sometimes convince ourselves that an idea will succeed simply because we believe in it.

But a product doesn't become valuable just because its creator is excited about it.

Its value must mean something to the person who needs it.

A Good Idea Is Only the Beginning

Ideas are easy to imagine.

Turning them into something useful is another matter.

When I think about developing an educational program, many questions come to mind.

Who needs this training? What problems do they encounter in their work? What knowledge or skills are missing? Can we deliver something practical at a price people can afford?

There are also business questions.

How much will it cost to develop? How do we market it? Can we sustain the program? Will people actually enroll?

I cannot answer all these questions through enthusiasm alone.

I need to study the market, listen to prospective students, and understand what other training providers are offering.

An idea is not yet a business opportunity until someone finds enough value in it to act.

That lesson is becoming more important to me.

The Difference Between Adding Products and Creating Value

It would be easy to keep developing new courses simply to expand our list of offerings.

More products might make EAA appear bigger.

But does having more programs automatically make us better?

I don't think so.

One course that genuinely improves a person's skills may be worth more than several courses that offer little practical benefit.

I want our training programs to connect what students learn with what they actually do.

Bookkeeping, accounting, financial management, and business education have practical applications. These are subjects that can help people understand how businesses operate.

But the way we teach them matters.

We must ask whether students leave with knowledge they can use, not merely information they can remember.

Perhaps our challenge is not just to create more educational products.

Perhaps it is to create better ones.

Innovation Doesn't Always Mean Inventing Something New

When people hear the word innovation, they often imagine a completely new invention.

But I'm beginning to think innovation can also mean improving something that already exists.

A course can be redesigned to make difficult subjects easier to understand.

A training program can include more practical exercises.

A product can be improved by listening to the people who use it.

Sometimes, a small but meaningful improvement can make a bigger difference than an entirely new product.

This is particularly relevant to education.

Our responsibility should not end when a student enrolls.

The real question is whether the training helps that person become more capable and confident.

The Cost of Being Wrong

Every new product carries risks.

Time, money, and effort can be invested in something that may never succeed.

That possibility is always there.

The temptation is to avoid taking risks altogether.

But how can a business grow if it never tries anything different?

I suppose the answer is not to eliminate risks, because that may be impossible.

The better approach is to understand them before committing too many resources.

Test an idea. Ask questions. Listen to criticism. Start with what can reasonably be managed.

And when the results are disappointing, learn from them.

There is no shame in discovering that a product needs improvement.

The greater mistake would be to keep offering something that doesn't serve its intended purpose simply because we are unwilling to change.

Building a Business With Purpose

I want EAA to grow.

There are responsibilities to meet, expenses to pay, and opportunities worth pursuing.

But the longer I think about developing educational products, the more I realize that growth should not be measured only by how many programs we offer or how much revenue we generate.

We should also consider the people who trust us with their time and money.

If a course can help someone improve his livelihood, manage a business more effectively, or gain confidence in his abilities, then our work has meaning beyond the sale.

And perhaps that should be the foundation of every product we create.

As November comes to an end, I still have many ideas to examine.

Some may become successful programs. Others may need to be changed or abandoned.

I cannot predict which ones will work.

But I want to remember one thing:

The purpose of creating a product is not to prove how clever we are. It is to make something genuinely useful to others.

If we keep that principle in mind, perhaps the right opportunities will become easier to recognize.

Related 2008 journal entries

Read October's reflection on learning from rejection, continue to December's reflection on hard work and adaptation, or browse the 2008 archive.