Poor Pivot

What does poor pivot mean?

Poor pivot is when a business changes its strategy with the intention to pivot and improve themselves, but not achieving the result they aimed for.

Definition of pivot

Pivot in a product management context may refer to a shift in the strategic direction of the business due to internal and/or external factors.

Usually the decision to pivot a product is the result of competitive changes, new findings about the market, or shortcomings in the original strategy.

According to Steve Blank, a pivot is a substantive change to one or more of the nine business model canvas components.

A pivot may mean you changed your customer segment, your channel, revenue model or pricing, resources, activities, costs, partners, customer acquisition — lots of other things than just the product.

The word pivot's use in startup land comes from the book The Lean Startup, where author Eric Ries defines it as, "Structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth.

Some examples of pivoting:

  • turning one feature of a product into the product itself, resulting in a simpler, more streamlined offering;
  • focusing on a different set of customers by positioning a company into a new market or vertical;
  • employing a new revenue model to increase monetization;
  • using different technology to build a product.
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Last edited on 6 January 2022.