AMA: The future of AI, identifying demand, and more
For the first newsletter of the year, I’m responding to questions submitted by readers. Thanks for sending them in — it’s great to see what’s top of mind for you.
Q: Shegun - I would love to learn more about the logistics of [your personal] retreat.
For instance, do you work in isolation at home, find an offsite location in town, retreat to a cabin in the woods, etc?
What are the typical challenges you encounter during a retreat? For instance, logistics like being contacted, or the emotional time needed to unwind and focus while managing your self-distraction.
A: My personal retreats have happened in various types of locations over time. With more personal resources in recent years, I’ve been able to have various locations I want. In the early years, I would simply check into a decent hotel I wouldn’t mind spending a lot of time in. I’ve since used resort locations, and other isolated locations out of town.
My spouse can always contact me if needed but I turn off all forms of communication. Recently, I’ve also deleted email, social and other communication applications off my phone. Why? Even though my notifications and other forms of distractions are off, I find myself spending too much time on them when I take breaks or before bed versus letting my mind soak in the day even further.
My team knows to not contact me unless absolutely necessary and nothing is usually absolutely necessary.
It usually takes day one to unwind and takes things out of my head into a journal. I bring prior journals also and revisit past sessions in day one to see how the journey has gone. I pray and meditate to center myself on the present. Usually I come into my retreat with a couple core areas of focus and that’s what I will typically dwell on and make decisions about. There are lots of good materials out there on founder retreats to explore further including https://zenfounder.com/retreats and https://minutes.co/solo-retreats-for-founders-why-every-entrepreneur-should-make-the-time-to-step-away-from-their-daily-routine/amp/
Q: One thing I've been thinking a lot about recently is positioning. What strategies do you have for positioning a product in an existing market to get initial traction and then eventually re-positioning to a more nascent market?
A: I would be hesitant to start the positioning exercise with the goal of repositioning in mind. The goal should be market expansion versus another repositioning. To figure out initial position, you need to take inventory of the current market players and problems they are solving and how they are solving it. You need a deep understanding of the customer problems and current competitors. The goal however is not to blindly copy competitors but to have an inventory of their key attributes. Rank those key attributes for 3-4 current competitors in the market. As you rank the attributes, you’ll begin to see a picture of their strengths and weaknesses especially by different customer segments. You’ll see your strengths vs theirs and which customers your strength and potential future direction will position you to win in that your competitors are not playing in or not approaching in the way that best meets certain customers unique needs. Remember you win, not by being the best, but through uniqueness and differentiation while deeply solving a particular problem for a particular type of customer.
As you win that customer segment with your differentiated approach, over time, you can expand customer types. At the beginning, be focused on a particular type of customer, solve a particularly important and valuable problem for that customer at a price point that gives you the leverage to grow.
Q: Have you written anything on the art of identifying demand? So many times, I meet with people who have an idea but really haven't validated demand. It would be great to hear your thoughts on that subject.
A: I’m happy to dig further into demand validation in a future article but at the core, it’s about differentiation and customer willingness to pay. Demand validation is easy if not coupled with willingness to pay and that’s where many fail. Everyone will demand something you are giving away for free.
Demand validation requires a clearly defined customer, clearly defined problem solution set, and a clear willingness to pay at the price that gives you margin. You also want to validate that as demand grows, it accrues an advantage to you, not a disadvantage. You want to achieve economies of scales, or virality/network effects or positive brand strength.
Q: Can you tell us more about the ethics of AI, potential disruptions for industries and jobs in 2023, and why contextualization is important?
A: This is a deep topic, not easily covered in a simple paragraph or two.
Any technology advancement that significantly adds to productivity gains should be embraced. Those productivity gains lead to significant expansion of economic opportunities and empowerment. It may be disruptive, but it’s our job to mitigate disruptive effects in ways that don’t limit significant productivity gains and ensures a shared upside across all societal segments. Mechanization of farming, typewriters, computers, the automobile, the internet, all were hugely disruptive but made for a better world in aggregate.
Suffice to say, change is coming and it will be very disruptive as significant change usually is. Ethically speaking, AI is not different from other technology tools, it’s all in the implementation and how its negative effects are mitigated. That takes a combination of government policies, and company leaders leading through positive values, and having a well informed society.
AI will bring the creation of new, highly valuable skills while at the same time, sunset other skill sets. It’s the natural cycle of these things.
I don’t know exactly what that future will look like, but we as a society and as organizations have to make sure it is subject to the values we hold dear.
I hope my answers are helpful. Please feel free to submit more questions here, on Twitter, or on Instagram, and let me know how you would answer these questions.