Let’s focus on customers!
The first Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operation I was involved with was in 2017. Our drone flew from Blackpool airport out to and around oil and gas platform 40km into Morecambe Bay before returning. If you had asked me back then what I thought BVLOS operations would look like in 2023, I would have, in line with others in the industry, talked about regular flights, integration with other air users and multiple use cases.
We have made enormous progress as in industry in the six years since then — but in some areas, including BVLOS, we aren’t where we thought we would be. The pace of change has accelerated and I’m incredibly optimistic about the next six years, but what can we as an industry do to ensure that when we look back in 2029, we are further ahead than we thought we would be?
In my view the most important thing is to focus on customers and providing what they really want, and need. Finding product — market fit, as a start-up would call it.
Many industries have gone through a similar trajectory and not accelerated until a company, and then the wider market, offers something that really fits what customers want and therefore get excited by — Tesla and EVs, Apple and smartphones. On the other side you could argue VR headsets are in a similar place to some UAS — the technology is impressive and very cool, but there isn’t yet a “killer app” that makes people say “I have to have that”.
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Clearly there are regulatory and technical challenges that need to be solved for the industry to grow. The difference is that having customers demanding a service will provide investment and focus to accelerate solving the other challenges. Whereas, tackling the problem the other way around and solving regulation doesn’t make the customers come.
So how as an industry can we do this? I have two suggestions to get started:
- Talk to customers. I enjoyed DroneX last week — I get excited by the cool technology and enjoy meeting up with people. But it was noticeable that there weren’t many end user customers there. We need to go out, talk to and listen to customers and their challenges. By customers here I mean the end users who ultimately pay for the flights — and therefore fund the industry. They might be in construction, logistics, healthcare, or a list of other industries. Perhaps we should be going to these expositions and conferences as well as our DroneX?
- Start with customer needs — not technology. It is all too easy as engineers, and those working in a technical sector, to start with the technology and then try and find a way to sell it. I have found myself doing it many times! Instead, we need to make sure that we are starting with what the customer needs and then work out what is required to meet that need. This not only means the solution will better suit the customer but also increases the chance of those creative solutions that completely change how something is done. Focusing on needs also encourages us to consider all aspects of the service we are offering. When I was conducting customer operations, I always tried to remember that the customer wasn’t buying the flight — they were buying the insight from the data we collected. Sure, some of them were interested in the technology — but ultimately the data and what we did with it was what mattered. This often led me to focus on a part of the service that hadn’t seemed important at first glance.
By focusing on our customers, finding out what they need and then offering it to them I believe we can create the excitement and drive within the industry to really accelerate and make sure that in 2029 we are amazed by how far we have come.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
