Nobody Said It Was Easy
I remember reading an inspirational quote on an image that said: “Stop waiting for things to happen. Go out and make them happen.” I even vividly remember the background picture. It was a blurry and dark photograph of what seemed to be a really cozy place. You know, that kind of place where you fantasize about spending the whole winter, isolated from cold and responsibilities, without any feeling of remorse for the outside world. It’s one of those places that make “going out” a torment. Leaving it seems like choosing pain over pleasure. And why would someone sane in the brain want that?
That’s what I kept asking myself looking at that picture. It obsessed me. So much that I still remember it till today although I’m a proud owner of a fish memory. Instead of showing me the “outside”, the place where things happen, the place I should be inspired to reach, the picture showed me the “inside”, the place where waiting happens, a place that is actually really comfortable and hard to leave. And that made an impression on me. It was more inspiring to understand it’s hard to make that step than the wonders of what could happen.
We all know what good could happen, okay? The hard part comes when dealing with what’s bad. Let’s go back to high school. You are the geek in your class. You have a shiny brain, one that would blind most of us. But you are not much of a talker and one of the most frightening things in your life is to look someone in the eye on the rare occasions you are actually talking. So, as you’ve realized, you don’t have much of a presence. People ignoring you is only natural. It’s also natural that you have moments when you imagine yourself being one of the cool guys. And that’s not hard. It’s not hard to know that you want to be popular and admired. Just like it’s not hard imagining the “outside” of the inspirational quote and the wonders it could come with.
The sweats come when you have to do something about it. Get out of your comfortable nice room and start working on how you want to be perceived. Because waiting for others to realize how amazing you are, it’s just simply not going to happen if you don’t put some effort into it. No matter what a brilliant genius you are.
The same things apply to your tech company. You may have created the most amazing product that is out there, but if you don’t help others get it, you are just waiting and that’s the easy part. If you want to be known, you need to let others know you. Because it’s not the silent ones who get noticed, but the ones who have a voice.
Getting your product to stand out is about communication. It’s also about much more: like having a plan, creating a strategy, defining your values, taking care of your image, or knowing when and how to act. It may sound complicated, but nobody said it was easy. Dreaming of a great reputation, well, that might be a piece of cake. Actually working on the way people see your product, that’s a different story.
Luckily for you, though, there’s a method to smooth your way and that method is called Perception Engineering. For a tech business, loving the product is essential in defining its success. Sadly, though, that’s not all it takes. You need to have others love your product also.
And that’s something Perception Engineering can help you with.
By Adriana Luca