A French revolutionary drinks wine with fellow patriots in a cafe. He sees a mob rushing by with torches and flags. He leaped to his feet. “I must find out where they are going,” announced the Jacobin, “so that I may lead them there!”
Markets are moving and evolving all the time. Some markets move quicker than others. Sometimes a market fragments based on the velocity of change. Unfortunately, individual participants often do not see this phenomenon. Instead, events sweep them along.
The job of market discovery by an entrepreneur is understanding those currents. As the revolutionary would ask (presumably in French), “where are you going?”
Most individuals one asks will give surface answers but not comprehend. But it is through speaking with a number of them that our would-be patriot or founder may discern a pattern. From where have they come? What propels them forward?
The trick here is that one must dedicate oneself to listening to the market to serve it. Deep listening is using questions and prompts to drive beyond surface answers. The objective is to reach a more holistic understanding of the subject. One is not validating one’s assumptions or even testing a well-formed hypothesis.
Later, one takes what one learned to stitch together a hypothesis that emerges from the data. To do this well, a good researcher must listen to the words of interviewees. Together, they will tell a story that no one of them could - and that you could not either!
Finally, reanalyze the market for new interviews to refine your hypotheses. These questions are still about them but now about a narrower aspect of their lives as you dial into disproving your initial ideas.
The wisdom of the market hides from almost all the participants. One creates outsized value by putting multiple pieces of the puzzle together. To do that, one needs to collect numerous puzzle pieces. To me, this task seems obvious, but most people don’t do it! It is easy to tell yourself a story that you may stop the work. Perhaps one’s preconceptions have been validated. It just seems like so much work to get the following interview. This voice is the lizard brain reaching out to slow you.
If one perseveres, insight awaits. The cycle of data, analysis, and follow-up interviews combine into a crucible. Preconceptions and irrelevancies burn away until only a few truths of the market remain.
One must then test the stability of those truths. Further, only some may respond to the supply that the entrepreneur can bring to bear. Thus, marketing-focused entrepreneurs have more opportunities to succeed: if they are more agnostic about supply, they have a much better chance of fulfilling demand!
Only then can the entrepreneur come out with the product to lead this mob to their desired place: where they wanted to go and were trying desperately to reach. And like the revolutionary waving a tri-cornered hat, we can say, “follow me, I know the way."
"I will lead you there.”