Happy new year everybody!
At the end of last year I promised that I’d try to build a tool for others rather than for myself. Turns out it’s quite difficult to get my ideas validated by the right people.
Who are the ‘right’ people?
In my case, I decided that the people I should speak to are recycling coordinators or waste diversion managers and educators whose charter is to educate people about decontamination. I have little experience in this industry so resorted to LinkedIn mailing around 15 or so people who fit the profile I was seeking. I used a free trial of LinkedIn’s premium tier which capped me at 15 InMails.
My cold intro looked something like the following:
How after sending out ~15 such cold intros from 2 weeks ago, how many responses do you think I got? Feel free to reply to this email with your guess. I’d be super interested to see if your outlook aligns with my own.
On the ideas front, the latest idea I’m interested in testing is how receptive city agencies would be if I offered them an answer widget that they could just embed into their own existing websites. While it feels much less impressive, I expect it’s much more palatable for prospective users because it’s far less change on their part. But even that might be a tough sell. We’ll see.
I am not sure how to guess how many people replied, but 2 thoughts came to mind, first, give people at least 2 weeks to reply. Secondly, I am reminded to update and check my LinkedIn so that I can be responsive to others !