Starting new ventures is probably one of the most risky business moves one can take. Also, there a many frameworks to manage risks.
Do you use any of them? Do you manage your risks?
Examples for some risks:
- Technological
- Financial
- Market (competitors, clones/substitute products, wrong timing or offer, etc.)
A simple framework to approach managing risks:
- Identify
• What are your goals? (risks ultimately always affect your goals)
• Reflect the environment you're operating.
• Think of risks associated with this environment
• Think of risks associated with (developing) your product.
- Asses
• Asses each of the risks you identified
• What is the likelihood of the risk manifesting?
• What is the (financial) impact if the risk manifests?
- Plan
• What can you do to reduce the likelihood of a risk or its impact?
• Think of ways to reduce the risk
• Create contingency plans or set aside some risk-response budget
- Implement
• Execute the steps to mitigate the risk from your plan. I.e. prepare the contingencies.
I'd like to know: Do you employ risk management or do you just concentrate on building and shipping a product (and hope for the best)?