Did you know that Pinterest was originally an online shopping platform? Or that the discount service Groupon started out as fundraising website. And not many people will know that IT corporation HP was an engineering company. All these companies and others are the subject of a Whoishostingthis infographic, startup pivots that changed the world.
A pivot is defined as a significant change in a startup’s original strategy. This concept is one of the core principles of the Lean Startup method based on the book published in 2011 by Eric Ries by the same name, and which is now being taught globally through workshops.
The Lean Startup method which is meant to help entrepreneurs create and manage startups, uses what they call a build-measure-learn feedback loop.
“A pivot is not tweaking of the product, but represents
a major change in the direction of the startup”
According to the Lean Startup website, the pivoting process forces startup founders to “test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy and engine of growth”, and to adapt their plans to something “customers want and will pay for”.
It’s important to note that a pivot is not tweaking of the product, but represents a major change in the direction of the startup.
As the Lean Startup Machine workshop manual outlines, these are “not incremental changes made to the product resulting from marketing analytics. Rather, they are high-level changes in strategy and execution that impact the whole business model.”
The infographic below shows companies who were quick to pivot and were not only able to remain competitive, but changed the world.
Source: WhoIsHostingThis.com
