I’m Marie, my startup just pivoted and rebranded, AMA 🔥

Hi @niall_o_c1! There is one thing that matters more than anything else on a remote team. If people are unable to communicate effectively verbally and in writing - like documents and Slack messages - then the company would be better off being in the same office. Here are a bunch of tips that we gathered from remote workers on how to avoid communication pitfalls: https://nira.com/remote-work-tip...

Hi @oyeakhil - Best of luck on your pivot! Here's how to confirm if you should pivot. - Tons and tons of research: Is the new problem you want to solve a painful problem? Everything from surveys (NPS, feature value analysis, pricing), to customer research calls, and sales discovery calls. Plus loads of user testing (5 second tests and regular user tests), user research calls, and robust competitor research. Quantify this research as much as possible (by doing counts) so that it's not biased. - Customer interest: Make sure that it's clear that people want your product. Do you have people agreeing to POCs? Are they ready to sign paperwork? Are you sure that what you're going to build will get purchased? - Technical Chops: Does your team have what's required to build the product you want to build? - What are you giving up: Are you sure the thing you're giving up on is worth giving up? Is this absolutely a better direction? - Team interest: Is your team interested in the new direction? Is it something you want to build? - Market: Is the market big and growing? Is there space for you? Are you creating a new market (if yes, do you have the chops to do that?)?

@sharfunnisa_quadri I attribute my success across lots of different industries/jobs primarily to the many, many years I've had to do all of those things 😂. I've personally always optimized for learning, and doing so as quickly as I could. And when a certain planned path didn't materialize, I quickly switched to something else. This includes things like going from my MA in English Literature to a corporate writing job to consulting, as well as pivoting from dogo to Draftsend to FYI to Nira. So it's a combination of not being too attached to a particular outcome, and pursuing as many learning opportunities as quickly as possible. The idea is to learn and shift as quickly as possible. From a customer context, you should always be improving whatever it is that you've built to solve customer problems in the best way possible.

Hi @siddhesh_lokare1! What does a pivot do to your mindset? Our pivot made us 1) more resilient to change and 2) even more conscious of true customer pain and business needs. In the midst of a pivot, you'll also need to take an unbiased look at the current situation of your business and make decisions based on that. It's a great practice to do anything, not just when pivoting. How can a marketer use comedy as a weapon to convert more leads? Comedy and creativity go hand in hand. And, marketing is of course tied to creativity. So, I’d say that comedy and marketing are meant for each other. Having a strong sense of humor helps you be more creative as a marketer. Also, you have an appreciation for the creative process. Comedy is all about expressing yourself, observing things and communicating what you observe, and also knowing your audience. All of these qualities are present in good Marketing. In particular, knowing your audience and speaking to them in the best way possible is a skill to hone as a marketer.

@braha "When you took your first idea and launched it to a product/business, What was your first step when it came to launching the product? Did you show to friends first, test out advertising, hired marketing agency?" The first step for us has always been to do customer development by talking to potential customers. We don't build anything until we know it's the right thing to build, based on customer research. Once we've completed that, we then build an MVP that we can validate with customers. We make sure that the MVP has high usage and retention before we then go ahead and build the product. We're always hiring, so please of course send your resume! You can DM me on Twitter @marieprokopets and I'll give you my email.

@ben_gustafson Hi Ben! My advice is to really nail your positioning. Here's what I'd recommend you do: - Write a one line description of your product and the problem it solves - Write a short one paragraph elevator pitch for the product - Write a 100-word description for the new brand - Pull together your products unique attributes (a few words each) - Document what value customers get from your product - Write down the job titles of your ideal customer - Really understand what use cases customers use your product for, and document those too You'll be able to use this positioning work in so much of your marketing, which will 1) save you lots of time, 2) make the messaging consistent. Best of luck!

@hina_khan11 Thanks Hina!

@robiul_haque Happy to :)

@topendrakatel 😃

@sanjida_akter_shanta Thank you Sanjida!