Why Enter a Market With No Competitors?
…does a need truly exist
Recently I created a new product. It is a tool.
Why?
While surfing Youtube a new category came up on my radar. It is a nitch in low-content notebooks. Most pages are blank, lined, or have some simple figure, etc.
These notebooks are fairly easy to create and sell through Amazon’s KDP self-publishing arm. That makes their creation a low barrier to entry. Based on my research there is an unbelievably strong market for these no to low content books.
So just because there is a market it does not mean one should enter it?
BUT as any entrepreneur you always hope that your baby will be the next Gerber baby and success is guaranteed.
I recently talked about Alberto Savoias’ excellent book called The Right It to establish skin in the game. This book is a great guide to establish a need.
BUT if the amount of time to create and publish the book is low, do you need to go through extensive analysis to establish the need? Maybe those tools are for items that will require significant investments in time, energy, and cost.
SO what is the tool?
Many years ago I prepared for the PMP exam and successfully passed it. I can not say that I directly have benefited from passing the exam. Maybe my employers valued it BUT I do not think that it directly made a difference whether I got the job or not?
The exam can be crammed for and passed without the person understanding how to effectively manage a project. You passed the exam BUT do not have a clue as to where to start managing a project.
PMI as an organization does a horrible job of providing direction. They have a book of knowledge called the PMBok that throws everything into 5 process groups and 10 areas of knowledge. BUT beyond the theory, they provide no guidance as to where to start and how to move through the process.
SO the tool I created was a weekly planner and something else. Let’s talk about the planner part before the something else part.
A planner looks at the knowledge areas and adds a few that are missing. Missing?
Yes, one of the things that a PM usually is expected, especially in industrial settings, to manage is the safety component of a project. PMI does not even mention it. Similarly the environment component.
Most industrial projects will not get executed unless the PM has safety and environmental plans. These groups will kill your project before it even gets started.
Lastly, I added a construction component. Most PMs do a horrible job of thinking about construction. They see construction as a dark art and delegate it to construction managers that work for them. BUT ignorance is not bliss and when the responsibility comes around the PM is responsible for that function.
OK, so I have talked through what I placed on the planner side BUT what is “the something else”?
The something else is a Journal. At the start of the week, the project manager needs to identify the key tasks that lead to success. And at the end of the week think through the successes and failures of that week. Lastly, capture a key lesson that MUST not be forgotten.
So you
Plan => Succeed/Fail => Journal => Learn
Repeat…
Journaling allows the PM to review and understand the good and the bad. It provides an opportunity to understand successes and failures and extract lessons. One can not grow or make better mistakes without understanding why one failed or succeeded in the first place.
At this point, you should be wondering what all this has to do with the title of this article?
Well, there is no one that is offering a Planner & Journal for Project Managers. No one!!!
If no one is offering the product, a direct competitor, then maybe there is no need for the product? Maybe no one will buy it?
Or maybe it is the next iPhone? A product that project managers can not live without. A tool that every project manager will rely on to achieve success.
In my opinion, the tool belongs in a unique nitch.
- It improves the project management tools by adding badly needed tools
- It provides guidance on logical project flow
- It provides a tool to plan and flow through a project based on group
- It provides a journal to identify keys to success and lessons from execution
It is the best PM Weekly Planner & Journaling tool. It is the only PM Weekly Planner & Journaling tool. It is the one PM Weekly Planner & Journaling tool that will help you to be successful.
Do you want to buy one?
My four cents…
