Reader, it’s amazing how little of a correlation there is between IQ and global ranking among the world’s elite chess players.
What powers them is not “intelligence” (whatever the hell that means) but expertise, which means something measurable.
Also, physicist Richard Feynman only (airquotes) had a 129 IQ, but was much more of an expert than 10,000 brilliant 20th Century physics majors. Interesting that he wrote so many books and did so much research… this all comes from Ericcson’s Peak, which I hope you have read.
Your product should have Feynman like expertise. And it doesn’t do so through being smart. It does through by being imbued with your hard-fought expertise.
And this whole train of thought comes from reading Philip Morgan’s Daily Consulting Insight, a newsletter worth 10x what it costs.
A small thought on how implementers become strategic advisors, having been through the process myself, as a [multiple horizontal marketing/tech specializations acquired over a decade] consultant for large fundraising orgs: you have to cultivate both solution expertise and your own business development expertise (though not business management, that can be delegated).
As an aside, I want to thank Philip again for helping me transition my positioning. I can hardly stand the DC-mentality of large fundraising organizations and I think there is something to the allegation that said orgs exist to let the rich whitewash their guilt. There is also unfortunately, a trend towards intellectual dishonesty.
For example, one of the traits of that ecosystem is refusing to use the word copywriting, and speaking only of strategy – without ever committing to a definition thereof. I prefer the honesty of copywriting.
So as I repeat the process of going from implementer to consultant, with a adjacent but different positioning, my thought is that developing solution expertise may be the sine qua non of that process, but by itself it’s not enough. This is especially true for me, as I focus in on a difficult to market horizontal specialization: ideation.
That’s why I love Philip Morgan’s written exploration of the flipside of solution expertise: business development expertise.
And this is my pitch as a marketing consultant to tech entrepreneurs – do you have a continuous and iteratively improvable marketing program in place?
Because the question for me to SaaS entrepreneurs is, “how does your product achieve the same impact, at scale, as an expert consultant?”.
I think understanding the marketing of your production is part of the answer to this question.