Challenge:  To introduce my challenge, allow me to first give some background that may establish some context. My  baby brother was born a healthy happy baby, but around the age of 4 fell ill, and spent years going to  doctors, being poked with needles and misdiagnosed time and time again, with no clear explanation as  to what exactly was wrong with him. He was constantly on medication for something or another, and  always taking vitamins to help strengthen his immune and digestive systems. Time had gone by, and  things were getting worse, as each doctor jumped to a new conclusion, listing devastating possibilities  and telling us we need to start making choices as to which treatments to attempt, knowing with some  certainty that there was no clear diagnosis, but only a series of guesses that may be partially correct, but  could also be completely incorrect, and we should just go ahead and hope for the best.

At a point in time, we noticed he was starting to get better, his immunity was stronger and his health  seemed to be returning to normal, something we hadn’t seen in years. We didn’t understand the cause,  and the doctors couldn’t explain it, but we were very pleased. But this improvement was temporary. A  few months later we noticed things were digressing, so we started to think about what had changed in  that period, and what had changed again more recently. The only notable difference was the vitamins  he had been taking. So we looked into this further, and did some research to understand what  ingredients were in the vitamins he was taking when he was better, that were not in the other vitamins,  then we traced back to reach a diagnosis based on this new information, which seemed to fit. We  consulted with doctors who agreed, and finally, we had reached our diagnosis.

After years of different tests and medication and experimentation based on doctors’ recommendations,  we decided enough is enough, and instead searched for alternative ways to heal his body and make him  healthy. A few dietary alterations were necessary, along with use of a certain natural product which  based on our research, would help heal him once and for all. Let’s call it “Product C” for simplicity. We  didn’t have access to Product C locally, so we had to find people abroad who could bring us some while  traveling. After just a few weeks of introducing Product C to his diet, we saw immense change. He was  healthy, happy, and normal. He was finally able to play outside with his friends, enjoy swimming in the  summer, not feeling sick and constantly lethargic and depressed. He was back!

So we did some more research into Product C, because we were amazed with how quickly and how  effectively it healed him; it literally saved his life. Within our research, we learned that Product C is what  they call a superfood, because of its long list of health benefits, which can actually help cure so many  ailments, and ultimately help save so many lives. From this, our product, “Divine C” was born.

Since it was unavailable in the local market, education and awareness of the product was initially very  low, creating a big barrier to entry, as we were driven to create accessibility to this superfood for the  locals, but we were fighting an uphill battle because people didn’t understand it, and so very few were  compelled to purchase it.

We knew this would be a game changer, not only from a business perspective, but more from a health  and humanitarian one, as our primary source of motivation was to help people be the healthiest version  of themselves, we just needed to figure out how to share our vision and knowledge in a way that would  be received.

Selection   Since this was a new product, we did our homework and tried to find success stories of Product C in  other countries, but all the information we could find, were related to very different markets, and very  different circumstances which were not comparable, so we concluded that using such data to base our  assumptions on would be completely useless, and instead we needed to just test the waters ourselves,  and see how things pick up, or where we needed to make some adjustments before scaling. With this in  mind, we decided to use the learning launch approach to get a feel for the market, and learn where we  may be falling short, to ensure that our product met the needs of our customers, rather than offering a  product that we felt was in its optimal form based on our experience, without hearing feedback from  the people who would be buying and using the product every day.

Application  To proceed, we designed the packaging, and imported our first batch of Divine C, ready to be launched  in the market. Based on our experience and our motivation to help people get healthy, we went ahead  with our soft launch of the product to a few select supermarkets and directed customers who showed  interest on our social media pages to go to those shops to purchase the product, and requested that  they offer us their feedback after using the product. It was a challenge, but we received a lot of insight in  terms of how the customers felt the product should be packaged based on their personal preferences  and intended use, and where it should be placed on the shelves to avoid confusion or misconception.  After collecting the feedback from our initial users, we returned to the drawing board to re-design the  packaging, dreading the fact that we would have to find new suppliers for the different material, but  ultimately knowing that based on the feedback received, this was the best option in the long run. We  finally re-launched a few weeks later, in the same stores, as well as sending free samples of Divine C in  its “new and improved” packaging to the customers we had received initial feedback from to hear their  thoughts. Needless to say, the feedback was much better in the second round, and we thought that it  would be a matter of days, maybe weeks at most, before Divine C would become popular and the  product go flying off the shelves.

Insight  To our surprise, we learned that having a great product that was well priced and had the power to  literally save lives, was not enough. We thought that the product would sell itself, but it turned out that  that couldn’t be farther from the truth. In a meeting with a potential strategic investor, he explained  that in his opinion, and project is like sailing, and you need 3 main components to guarantee success; a  talented captain, an excellent boat, and the wind to push the boat. He went on to highlight that if any  one of those components is missing, success would be very difficult, and unlikely. He acknowledged that  we had our talented captain (strong/driven leaders managing the project), and we convinced him in the  duration of the meeting that we had an excellent boat (an outstanding product with huge potential;  Divine C), but in his opinion, there was no wind, because the demand required to turn our project into a  success was just not there. He said that he didn’t advise we take it further, because the market wasn’t  ready for such a product, and that the lack of awareness and understanding would be detrimental. He  opened out eyes to something; while we had fine-tuned Divine C to be the best product ready for  scaling and we were expecting Divine C to sell itself, we risked that with the lack of awareness and  understanding, paired with a culture which promoted pharmaceutical products as the number one way

to cure illness, there was no wind. We took this into consideration, and decided that the only way to  give Divine C a fighting chance, was to change the way we introduced it to the market. Instead of  highlighting the health benefits Divine C offers, backed by lots of scientific research, we tried to think  back to what created the drive to bring Product C to the market, and why we were so adamant about  doing so, and something lit up. The reason we were so insistent on making this work, was because we  saw firsthand how it saved lives, and we wanted to be able to help others get healthy, and ultimately be  happy, but we also realized that before accidentally stumbling upon our discovery in the way we did, we  too would have been a bit hesitant to try out a product like Divine C, only because it is new, and  different, and most people are comfortable in their routine and the constants in life, and innately averse  to change. We recognized that the only way to create our wind, was to tell our story, to share our  experience with others, to give them enough information that would allow them to relate to us in some  way or another, or at the very least, to show them that to us, bringing Divine C to the market wasn’t  driven by business potential, but more by its potential to really save lives, and change the world, even if  only a small capacity. When we started to talk about why we started the product, rather than what the  product it is, we found that people were more interested to understand how the product can help them  too. The product is the same, and our motivation is the same, but by altering the way we presented it,  sharing our story, and focusing on the human aspect, people were able to feel our story, and in doing so,  they were intrigued and eager to learn how they could help themselves and those they care about as  well, by getting Divine C and using it as soon as possible, to get healthy and be happy.

Approach  Based on this experience, and the lessons learned in the course, I believe that while the learning launch  approach was a useful and beneficial experience to understand how to optimize a product, the key tool  which led us to success in this case was storytelling. Sharing our story with our customers allowed them  to understand that as a new company on the market amidst a sea of scams and gimmicks, we had a  reliable and trustworthy product which we were launching to help people, and this compelled them to  want to try Divine C. In the future when launching a new product to the market, I would be inclined to  combine the learning launch and storytelling tools, to be able to test the market and tweak the product  as needed to ensure that it does indeed address the needs of our customers, while also guaranteeing  that they undergo an exceptional experience at every stage associated with our product.

