Quick Tip — The Triad for Success: Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability in Business Design
The Triad for Success: Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability in Business Design
Have you ever wondered why some businesses design successful products or models while others fail? The secret sauce lies in a crucial triad: Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability. Balancing these elements ensures that a product or business model meets customer needs and aligns with your organisation’s capabilities and market sustainability.
🔎 Desirability is the key to crafting ideas that meet people’s needs and provide a memorable experience. To test your target customers’ understanding, it is essential to start prototyping early. Take Apple’s iPhone, for example; part of its success lies in the unique balance of functionality and a seamless, enjoyable user interface.
🔎 Feasibility is crucial once you have a desirable idea. Assessing its feasibility asks whether creating a solution using existing or upcoming technology is possible. It requires a thoughtful evaluation of available resources, time and effort for development, and the associated risks. Look at Uber, which harnessed the power of GPS technology to provide a service that met a universal need: quick, reliable transportation.
🔎 Viability addresses whether a sustainable business can be built around your solution. It involves assessing costs, how they will be covered, and what needs to be true for the business to work. Remember Blockbuster? Their failure to create a viable digital business model led to their downfall in the face of online competitors like Netflix. This example also underscores the dynamic nature of viability — businesses must be nimble and ready to adapt their models in response to evolving market conditions.
Applying these concepts to your Business Model and Product Design is critical.
🎯 Your Business Model must be desirable, providing value that keeps customers returning. It should be feasible, meaning it can realistically be implemented, given your current or future capabilities and resources. Finally, it should be viable, ensuring it’s profitable, sustainable, and adaptable to market changes.
🎯 Similarly, your product should be desirable, satisfying customer needs to the point they’re willing to pay for it. Producing within the current or future company’s capabilities must be feasible. Lastly, it must be viable in the long term, ensuring profitability and resilience in a dynamic market.
Now, take a moment to reflect on your own business. How are desirability, feasibility, and viability reflected in your business model and product design? Are there areas where you could achieve a better balance? These fundamental principles can provide invaluable guidance as you navigate your entrepreneurial journey.
For more information check out David Kolb Consultancy
Check out more Quick Tips for rapid actionable insights
Quick Tip — Rapid Idea Validation and Prototyping for Success
Quick Tip — A Framework for Understanding Product Value
Quick Tip — Design Thinking vs Lean Startup
