4 Big Lessons Brewed Up in 2017
2017 was a very special year for our team at Parachute Coffee. Late nights, a metric tonne of coffee sold (well, probably close), and a metric tonne of coffee consumed.
What was the outcome?
8,000 airdrops packaged and shipped. And a team that evolved into a serious force, stacked with heavyweight talent, who put their heads together to design an 83 page growth roadmap for 2018.
These are the lessons we learned in 2017, and we will carry with us to ship 50,000 airdrops in 2018.
- Always be listening.
A great product is actually built by your customer. They’ll tell you what they need, and what they don’t. The hard work is interpreting what they say.
How did we do it? In 2017, we actively listened to our early adopters. Our team enlisted Neilsen to help us design and conduct an in-depth study of our subscribers. 300 people responded to our survey, and we conducted 10 focus groups, and almost 30 qualitative interviews. The data is spectacular.
2. For every dollar your customer gives you, give them 3 dollars in value.
How did we do it? In 2017, we made a prioritized and sincere effort to build personal relationships, with every single customer — as if Parachute were a personal home coffee concierge. It’s requires a lot of time and energy, but our customers deeply trust our brand because of it, and we add unique value that our dinosaur coffee competition simply can’t.
3. Bring your product alive through honest design. Aesthetic rules in the new digital economy.
How did we do it? In 2017, we spent our limited resources on the strongest creative we could find. And we empowered a brilliant designer internally to bring consistency to all of our brand communications, and to elevate the visual, editorial and tactile experience of our subscribers. We hired a creative lead before we hired a marketing lead. Go figure.
4. Think and build for the long term.
How did we do it? In 2017, we started building systems for scale. Some of them might be rudimentary right now, but they exist, and they align everyone on our team and our mission. Our Google Drive is ground zero for our systems. We have a lot more to build, and we continue to build them for the future.
In the next post, I’ll tackle lesson number 1 in greater depth, and share some of our findings. Stay tuned, coffee lovers. We’re bringing hipster coffee home.
Michael Potters
CEO
