How secretive are you...?

by Neil Morgan

Posted: 14 years ago 21 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

...when it comes to your new products?

One school of thought says you should keep eveything close to your chest so your competition can't muscle in on your ideas until you launch, which means you stay some steps ahead.

Another says you should be open about eveything you're doing because you can bring your market along with you and build a better product from their input during development.

Until now, I've been in the first camp but I'm swaying. I'd love to share the nuggets on my whiteboard that map out the next few years for customers in an ongoing dialogue.

And for software developers, what about source code? Do you encrypt yours or do you sucumb to the very real possibility that someone will steal your code and launch their own product? It happens.

Dunno. I need to think about it a bit more.

What d'ya think?

Neil

#secretive

doylesoft 14 years ago

I've worked Customer Support for practice management software (one of the bigger shops) for the last 10 1/2 years... and there is more than one completely free practice management system out there.

For quite a few years (before corporate started making gradual changes to the place) there was an embedded message on every employee entrance door; apparently from one of the founders: "The only thing the competition can't duplicate is our people."
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DogScout 14 years ago

I ain't sayin'
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Neil Morgan 14 years ago

I think the open people make more many then the paranoid people, but I don't have evidence.

Not sure I'd agree with that.

Google
Microsoft
Adobe
Apple

None of them open, all of them making pots of money
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- CDarklock 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Neil Morgan
  
  Google
  Microsoft
  Adobe
  Apple
  
  None of them open
  
  Wrong. Google and Microsoft are very open about what products they're developing. It's Adobe and Apple that are secretive, and they're not making near the profit Google and Microsoft are.
  
  There needs to be a line drawn here between what a product is and how a product works. Google may be secretive about the exact algorithms and ranking factors they use, but we knew Caffeine was coming long before it hit the streets.
  
  Likewise, when Microsoft is planning to debut a new technology, that's generally known long before it actually gets into anyone's hands... the Kin, for example, was generating buzz in the mobile device community over a year before it hit shelves. And the Kin actually was being kept a secret; most Microsoft technologies are the subject of public demonstrations several years before release.
  
  Which is when Apple steals them, charges $120 for the update that installs them, and smugly says "we released it before they did." While the public is having snits over Microsoft's $300 upgrade cost for the five features Apple parceled out at $120 a pop in "updates."
  
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MichaelHiles 14 years ago

There are maybe 20 solid consultants in the entire world that do what I do successfully.

A lot more talk the game but fail because it requires a very specific background and knowledge of business systems from the 50,000 foot view level of an enterprise.

That means you have to understand strategy, process, money, marketing & sales, as well as all the corresponding support systems - and know how to wire it all together to make money inside of a business. There simply aren't that many people who are equally adept at marketing as they are at engineering and organizational leadership. In most cases, it's one or the other.

That being the case, I am not worried at all about giving up info about what I do, even at the strategic level.

In fact, I recently gave away 3 very strong strategic-level videos for free as a WSO that was literally just a test of the material that will be used in marketing on the front end. Over 800 warriors interested in offline marketing consulting opted in during the WSO while I had it open.
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Neil Morgan 14 years ago

Hey Michael

There simply aren't that many people who are equally adept at marketing as they are at engineering and organizational leadership.

What if there was LOADS of quality competition.

Would your strategy for sharing be different?

Cheers,

Neil
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- MichaelHiles 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Neil Morgan
  
  Hey Michael
  
  What if there was LOADS of quality competition.
  
  Would your strategy for sharing be different?
  
  Cheers,
  
  Neil
  
  Sure it would.
  
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  10XTS... I got your digital strategy right here...
  
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sbucciarel Banned 14 years ago

It's a bonafide fact that if you divulge your secrets, it will be stolen. They steal it after launch ... why wouldn't they steal it before launch?

There are people who are incapable of coming up with their own products and ideas and they make their living stealing from others.

As for non-disclosures, etc ... of course a company who is working on a product should have them as well as non-compete agreements. I've signed quite a few of them. It's just foolhardy to trust people to do the right thing or not to do the wrong thing.

Paranoid .... lol. That's just smart.
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yukon Banned 14 years ago

[DELETED]

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- entry 14 years ago
  
  Here are my details:
  
  My name is Mr x,
  
  I am x years old
  
  I live in the village of x town,
  
  i am in the x niche, and get my traffic from x source.
  
  I truley believe in transparency but in some instances like to not reveal certain information about myself!
  
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Danielle Zack 14 years ago

Business is business and you have to take steps to protect yourself. What I have seen to be successful is sharing the concept of what your are doing so you can build up interest and hype, but keep your best secrets about the project. It's not beneficial to be 'parinoid' as some have said. Like mindset will attract like mindset and you want to attract great people to your project. When you share, you are benefiting yourself but there's nothing wrong with censoring it. A happy medium...
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Triwlo 14 years ago

Quite, but then again I'm a person who likes to think the best of people ^_^
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gjabiz 14 years ago

It depends. Is my answer.

On a NEW product, I'll keep it close to the vest, other than my R and D team, which is nothing more than a Trusted Few whose opinion and input I value.

There are open discussions about some general concepts or segmets of a niche, or how to market...and then there are private discussions among affiliates.

There have been times, when we have so many great ideas (the we being most of US Warriors)...that you just have to give them out because you know they will be a distraction.

But, more importantly, to me and others the thing to protect is the result. Because without knowing the results, the other guy can only guess...so, many of my projects have been shared with the 'public', but the results...well, they stay under the radar.

gjabiz
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Amanda_Davis 14 years ago

This isn't about autoresponseplus 4 by any chance?
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Jake Howard 14 years ago

Stop stressing too much about people trying to steal your idea, because most of the time, even if the idea is any good, you are going to have to ram it down peoples throats in order to convince them.

What I do is keep the idea to myself, while I think it through and punch holes at it from every direction. After this, I open parts of the idea up to people that I trust, and people that my idea revolves around. Unless I trust them 100%, I do not divulge my idea in full, but simply divulge parts that I want their opinion on.

I take confidence knowing, that even if they try and steal my idea, that they don't know the idea in full and that I am already so much further infront of them, that it isn't funny.
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Neil Morgan 14 years ago

This isn't about autoresponseplus 4 by any chance?

LOL - busted

It won't be called that and it's too late to make any difference to that project because it's so far down the line.

All the way through the development process my heart was telling me to go public, meaning involving current customers in a big way. My head told me not to and I stuck with that because it means users will have a competitive advantage. Short term pain for longer term gain, I guess.

To be honest though, the topic interests me for future development.

Cheers,

Neil
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- Bill Farnham 14 years ago
  
  Neil, if I told you........I'd have to kill you....
  
  Personally I think keeping things under wraps until you're ready to launch is a good thing.
  
  I spent a good many years in the corporate world designing consumer products and we made sure everything was hush-hush until all the ducks were in a row.
  
  ~Bill
  
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Neil Morgan 14 years ago

I remember a few years ago trying to take my forum members along with me by talking about new features that would be added in a future version.

One forum member compared me to the emperor and his new clothes.

Ouch!
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- Dennis Gaskill 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by HypeFree
  
  I know most of you paranoid freaks will disagree. Go and keep your secrets, but stay away from me!
  
  Everyone who is paranoid is not a freak. Not all freaks are paranoid. Just because someone is paranoid does not mean they don't have a good reason for it. Some people should be paranoid, it's appropriate given their situation.
  
  Calling people "paranoid freaks" could be a form of paranoia.
  
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  Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.
  
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