The Four Most Powerful Questions to Grow a Business

These four simple questions can help create a business with lasting customer value:

• What part of the customer experience is already good enough?
  • Stop focussing on solving this problem because it is already solved. Customers no longer appreciate these improvements. Ex: Personal computers are powerful enough and cheap enough. Phone quality is good enough. Cars are reliable enough.  McDonald's coffee is good enough.
• What part of the customer experience is not good enough?
  
  • Focus on discovering and solving unsolved problems. Ex: Maintaining a personal computer is a nightmare. Phone-tag is an obstacle to business. Safeguarding a car from theft is difficult. Keeping the kids quiet in the backseat is a problem on long trips. Getting served quickly at Starbucks is a problem.
• What are the lessons about customer value from unexpected success in the market?
  • If a new entrant is gaining market share, what does this signal about customer value? Are customers valuing a new attribute, like accessibilty (Line 6) simplicity (Swiffer, iPod) or convenient billing (cable telephone) or customization (Starbucks)?
• What do customers apparently not value, based on unexpected flops in the market?
  • Are there signs of products or services that have outstripped customer needs? Has the path of incremental innovation gone too far?