Creation and Presentation. That’s the logical order in which businesses are presented to consumers. However, when your service is completely consumer based, a different approach may prove itself necessary. Better yet, what if this minor modification could actually minimize the time before launching your business? Such an approach was the body of discussion in a talk from Felipe Millon, the current GM and Regional leader for Amazon Prime.
Amazon Prime Now is a delivery service in which Amazon Prime customers in select locations can order grocery and household items and track their arrival in real time. During his presentation, Milon stated that the goal of Amazon Prime Now is to, “[give] people back time to focus on the things that matter.” Therefore, rather than simply introducing service to the world, Amazon Prime began with customer analytics. In Millon’s words, we “launched so fast by working backwards.”
Prime Now actually began by publishing a press release before even attempting to create a product. Next, the startup utilized consumer based surveys to determine and pinpoint what best fulfills consumer needs. Some major questions to be answered included: what products were essential to consumers, what did customers want, and how fast did they want it?
Through this preliminary research, Prime Now discovered convenience is their consumers primary concern. The ability to access household items, such as baby formula for new parents or soup when you’re sick in a matter of twenty minutes or less all while remaining in the comfort of your own home has proven to be indispensable to the success of Prime Now. It’s often easy to get caught up in the greatness of your new business idea, but like Felipe suggested start with really assessing the needs of your market in order to minimize launch time. As demonstrated by the mere 111 days from Prime Now’s conception to its initial launch, asking your customers what they need, not assuming what they want is the key.
As always we hope you continue to learn, act and build with the LAB Miami.