How to know when to pivot

At the start of every cycle (or 4/8 weeks) define actionable metrics that capture the value your business provides to your customers. Spend that cycle time optimising those metrics

In this example, we will assume a steady flow of inbound traffic from marketing sources (we are not testing a hypothesis about which channel is the best).

At the end of the cycle look at your metrics:

1. The metrics have plateaued and they are too low = pivot
2. The metrics have plateaued and they are about right = persevere
3. The metrics haven’t plateaued (assumption — there is still room for improvement) = persevere

Eric Ries’s definition of a pivot:

A change in strategy without a change in vision

A pivot is just changing course en-route to the same destination. If you have low metrics and you cannot optimise them further, get back out to your users and find out “the why” on a qualitative level.

Pixar is a classic example of regular pivoting. Toy story for example, was originally turned down by Disney (even though it was modified to suit their requests) so the team had to completely rewrite the script. It still had the same vision “what if toys were real” but the story changed.