Once upon a time there were three wise people who wanted to create a start-up. These smart people were full of good and nice ideas, and they liked doing things well. So they worked on a Business Plan for their new company.
They knew they would need a website, and they also knew that a website isn't done in a day. So they decided to start working on it as they finished polishing their Business Plan.
As destiny would have it, they ended up in the hands of a Content Strategist. (I did say they liked doing things well, didn't I?). The Content Strategist told them that good content requires good thinking, so she had them thinking. And what good thinkers they were! They had four long sessions thinking about this and that. About goals and customers and messages and all sorts of other things. The Content Strategist would ask and listen. And then ask some more, focussing on what seemed to be minor contradictions. They talked and listened and scribbled and drew. Until one day she said it was time to move forward.
Phase I was done, and they could move on to exciting phase II. She gave them a document with a summary of the thoughts and comments and decisions they had come up with, and asked them to read it very carefully.
The three wise people took the document and retired to their homes. A few days later, the Content Strategist received an unexpected message:
"We Need To Talk"
The three wise people had realised they didn't want to go ahead with the project. That is, *their* project. Like, not the website, but the start-up.
According to their Business Plan, the company made sense, and the risk was low. Not only this, the three people had worked together for a long time, and knew how to deal with each other's peculiarities. What then, had made them change their minds? Apparently, the conversations in the analysis phase of the Content Strategy helped them realise that they had different views on the project, and that they weren't in a position to carry on with their idea.
Now, I'm not an expert in Business Plans or start-ups at all, but somehow I'm not surprised that it was through the Content Strategy rather than the Business Plan that they became aware of (and honest about) their own goals.
I think that it was when they were put in a situation of actually imagining a conversation with their customers and collaborators, of actually telling people who they were and what exactly they were offering, that they realised they weren't ready for the adventure. They listened to each other's views, and found out that maybe they didn't share as much as they'd thought. They verbalized what their customers needed and wanted, and started to see that maybe they weren't interested in doing what it took to fulfil their customers' expectations. Needless to say, having to tell an outsider things that had been taken for granted for a long time also helped.
The numbers in the Business Plan said "go ahead". But the key issues in the Content Strategy said "beware, you might not be ready for this commitment".
Now, I'm not an expert in Business Plans or start-ups at all, but somehow I'm not surprised that it was through the Content Strategy rather than the Business Plan that they became aware of (and honest about) their own goals.
I think that it was when they were put in a situation of actually imagining a conversation with their customers and collaborators, of actually telling people who they were and what exactly they were offering, that they realised they weren't ready for the adventure. They listened to each other's views, and found out that maybe they didn't share as much as they'd thought. They verbalized what their customers needed and wanted, and started to see that maybe they weren't interested in doing what it took to fulfil their customers' expectations. Needless to say, having to tell an outsider things that had been taken for granted for a long time also helped.
The numbers in the Business Plan said "go ahead". But the key issues in the Content Strategy said "beware, you might not be ready for this commitment".
Well, weren't they happy to have realised in time.
