Pivot entered the startup vernacular a few years ago when Eric Ries popularized it on his blog with Pivot, don’t just jump to a new vision. Previously, I’ve espoused the benefits of iterating and believe it’s important to differentiate between the two. Each term has its place in the startup world and should be used accordingly.
Here’s how I look at pivoting and iterating:
- Pivoting – A wholesale change of the current business model in an attempt to capitalize on a different market opportunity
- Iterating – A minor change of the current business model in an attempt to capitalize on a closely related market opportunity
Pivoting is simply a much more drastic form of iterating. When I talk to entrepreneurs and they tell me how they’ve pivoted recently, most of the time they actually mean iterated. Iterate is something you can roll out quickly and casually. Pivoting is a wholesale change to the business and typically takes much longer to execute.
What else? What do you think of the differentiation between pivoting and iterating?
David Cummings on Startups 
Leave a reply to Jamie Bardin Cancel reply