Will It Fly?
A guide to validating business ideas to avoid costly entrepreneurial mistakes.
Summary of 6 Key Points
Key Points
- Mission Design: Aligning your business idea with your personal values
- Development Lab: Creating a testable business hypothesis
- Flight Planning: Sketching out your business model
- Flight Simulator: Conducting market tests and validation
- All Systems Go: Ensuring your business idea has long-term potential
- Pilot in Command: Making the final decision to proceed or pivot
key point 1 of 6
Mission Design: Aligning your business idea with your personal values
Mission Design in the context of business strategy addresses the alignment of your business idea with your personal values. This perspective encourages entrepreneurs to ensure that the objectives and actions of their business align with their personal values and beliefs. This alignment is a critical factor in achieving long-term success as it instills a sense of purpose and satisfaction, fueling the drive and motivation necessary to overcome challenges and achieve business goals. ..Read&Listen More
key point 2 of 6
Development Lab: Creating a testable business hypothesis
The concept of creating a testable business hypothesis is deeply emphasized. This involves forming a succinct statement that encapsulates your business idea and its core proposition. This hypothesis is a prediction about how your product or service will perform in the marketplace. It is based on your understanding of your audience, the problem you are solving, your solution, and the benefits it would offer…Read&Listen More
key point 3 of 6
Flight Planning: Sketching out your business model
Flight Planning, as discussed in the book, is a comprehensive and methodical approach to building a business model in the inception phase. It entails outlining your business idea by sketching a detailed plan. This involves identifying the target market, understanding their needs, determining the unique selling proposition, and planning the revenue model among many other things. It’s akin to a pilot mapping out his flight course, taking into account all possible variables and contingencies. ..Read&Listen More
key point 4 of 6
Flight Simulator: Conducting market tests and validation
In ‘Will It Fly?’, the strategy of ‘Flight Simulator’ is introduced as a means to conduct market tests and validation. This metaphorical concept involves carrying out a ‘test flight’ to validate your business idea before launching it to avoid potential failure. Like a pilot in a flight simulator, an entrepreneur tests out their business idea in a safe environment before taking it to the real world. This practical and insightful method minimizes risks and increases the potential for success…Read&Listen More
key point 5 of 6
All Systems Go: Ensuring your business idea has long-term potential
All Systems Go is the concept that provides an understanding of how to ensure your business idea has long-term potential. It emphasizes the importance of thorough planning and testing to minimize risks and increase the chances of success. It begins with the need to clearly define your business idea, including its mission, goals, and target audience. Without a clear notion of what you’re aiming to achieve and who you’re trying to serve, it’s impossible to determine if your idea has the potential for long-term success. ..Read&Listen More
key point 6 of 6
Pilot in Command: Making the final decision to proceed or pivot
In the role of a pilot in command, the individual carries the authority and responsibility to make the final decision whether to proceed or pivot. Similar to how pilots operate, business leaders are asked to make crucial decisions about the direction of their companies. They can decide to stick with the current route, making minor adjustments along the way, or they can decide to pivot, changing the course entirely if they feel it is not leading to the desired destination…Read&Listen More