One of the first business books I ever read was “Focus” by Al Ries and it really made an impact on me. I recently came across a quote from Twitter founder Ev Williams that again brought up the concept of focusing:
“Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. Small things, like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you think when you zoom in. You can much more easily position and market yourself when more focused. And when it comes to partnering, or being acquired, there’s less chance for conflict. This is all so logical and, yet, there’s a resistance to focusing. I think it comes from a fear of being trivial. Just remember: If you get to be #1 in your category, but your category is too small, then you can broaden your scope—and you can do so with leverage.”
People tend to find focusing hard in a fast moving, multi device always on world (myself included). A lot of entrepreneurs seem to think that when they want to raise investment they need to have an all signing all dancing product. As you approach your go live date there is a tendency to just add another feature and another until you have a product that does not fit the needs of your market. It is not cool or sexy to focus but it is a powerful concept that you ignore at your peril.
I think the idea of focusing your product has the following benefits:
- It makes development easier if you focus only key features
- It helps with positioning and can help you stand out from the crowd
- It makes targeting customers easier
- The whole concept of MVP demands that you focus on the smallest number of features possible to get your product released