Shifted a problem elsewhere

Description

  • Externalities are a bitch and sometimes you reap the whirlwind

Disproof

  • Evidence of problem resolution instead of relocation

Consequences

  • In B2B, someone always pays for the externalities with labour
    • If that someone is your operational teams because you sell a solved problem, work will probably land on functions that are not designed for it and kill them
    • If that someone is another department in your customer because you sell a tool, you might end up without a customer
  • When the solution creates actual social/environmental externalities in the part of the world you’re not monitoring because they’re not your target demographic, this tends to blindside you
  • And can cost everything from customers to the business

Causes

  • Typically, greed is to blame here but skill issues can also cause this especially when expanding into a new domain
  • Especially common in marketplaces when launching into adjacent categories and underestimate the guiderails and gubbins that go around the actual transaction
  • Usually, someone will have spotted this and been ignored
  • Sometimes can genuinely be caused by incomplete product thinking or launching too early

Approaches

  • Start by being realistic with the product that was too good to be true; because that was never sustainable in the first place unless you planned to pump and dump
  • From there, work out and accept the costs of building it right; hopefully you will still have a viable business