Part 1: A bit about my journey for Young Change-makers
This is Part 1 of a series of posts aimed at young change-makers. As the world can seem grey at times, you might find some of my learnings useful.
Reflections from 12 years as a freelance (innovation and strategy) consultant.
When I first considered becoming a freelance consultant, I was clueless about my specific areas of focus. Thankfully I had not worked in a consulting firm. And that has made most of the difference. đ
Anyway, so I went and spoke with people. My college professors, founders from my venture capital portfolio, and client leaders from my time heading western India strategy & ops for an industrial robotic solutions company.
They offered valuable suggestions. Only, I was left a bit confused with the possibilities. And accordingly, I started with nearly a dozen service offerings.
Thankfully, early on, I made it a practice to review the services every 6 months, throw out what wasn’t relevant, and maybe add something that was.
And surprisingly, I soon came across my core niche for the time. And it was made obvious to me by prospective clients. By brilliant young business leaders who, given my experience in venture capital, wanted to engage me to help prepare their investment pitches. They knew that it would be better aligned with prospective investors. And they were right.
The lesson I learnt was, that while the world might insist on you picking and settling on a niche, or expect you to have 10 years experience as a fresher, it is important not to lose yourself in that dust storm of misleading expectations.
Follow your gut, it will guide you. Had I felt pressured to quickly pick one service offering and stick with it, as many have, I might have been an average consultant operating in fear and constantly competing with others in that space on price.
Instead, I accepted that I didn’t know what to offer, so it was best to start wide, and figure or let my core niche service surface in good time. And it did. Quickly enough too.
To put it simply, if you haven’t found your specific groove, you might first have to go wide, and be open to ploughing the whole damn field.
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I have grown over investment pitches. And after working with many services business, my current focus is on consumer product companies.
And current services include a 30-minute virtual consult call, and innovation and strategy consulting engagements.
I guide product teams on non-tech aspects of innovation and growth, which include understanding your customer needs better, assist in better testing of prototypes and gathering feedback, and on helping you develop a more differentiated product. The result would be better than average prospects of business growth and profitability, and more importantly, (your) customers delight.
Get in touch if you are a product/ innovation leader and could use some assistance in creating your next great product.
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