Mr Operator: It’s a question of frustration

Mr Operator is back with an update on his first post published yesterday.

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I make no apology for couching my opening piece in a tone likely to elicit either mirth or derision, depending on your point of view. Call it the result of an upbringing on Ben Elton and Richard Curtis.

Ewan is indeed correct when he paints the picture as one of frustration, not sadism. I take absolutely no pleasure in informing intelligent, diligent people that they have laboured in vain for a year on something that will never, ever see the light of day in its current format. Sometimes the only answer is to rip it all up and start over. Many of these people don’t have valley VC cash behind them – they have left secure jobs, mortgaged houses, sold cars, put small children in care and sent their partners back to work …basically put their medium-term financial solvency on the line for a shot at the mobile big-time.

And so often they are either fundamentally wrong in the MNO part of their plan or they are completely inept at selling themselves.

You don’t get a second shot.

There are many thousands of developers out there with cool ideas, many of which look promising, with good viral uptake among the S60 tweakerati or VoIP devotees. But only a literal handful of people can open the door down the path to mobile nirvana. Knowing who they are, what their business drivers and priorities are is key to getting the second meeting. And the third. There are many, many steps beyond that before you get even close to a customer, and at any stage you could fall. Technical, commercial, legal, regulatory, UI, OEM, OS, the list goes on. The one meeting you managed to get already marks you out as very lucky or well-connected. If you blow it because of poor preparation, an unsound understanding of MNO challenges or some addressable but currently obvious shortfall, then your chances of getting another shot with the same MNO are next to nil. Only the very compelling and unique do so.

My interest in working with Ewan and the SMS Text News team is to try and help promising ideas make it past first base. Obviously the vast majority will still languish in the shareware / Handango void due to the fundamental fact that only a few can succeed pre-installed out of many thousands of candidates.

I’m able to help with the hygiene factors that if not addressed, would see your pitch fail not because the product was poor, but because some other aspect made continuing the relationship too hard and time-consuming for a product manger with a very limited amount of ‘free time’ to do product evaluation.

Ultimately, consultant opinions are like the proverbial – everyone’s got one. Like most things, professional opinion should be taken as part of a balanced diet of market research, second opinion and gut instinct. Plenty of organisations have had Beatles or KFC moments, where they turned down something that went on to become a household name due to prejudice, laziness or arrogance. Sometimes it is their fault, but often – in the mobile industry anyway – it is because of a failing in the approach, not the analysis.

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We’ll be starting with some Mr Operator opinions on some mobile companies shortly. I’ve had a lot of suggestions for companies wanting his viewpoint already, so if you’d like your product or service ripped to pieces by our very own Mr Operator, drop me a note.