The Observer Effect: Product Feedback Is Not Market Signal
The Ecosystem Entanglement™ Series - Post 2: A practitioner’s view on commercializing deep tech in hyperbolic markets
In quantum physics the Observer Effect describes a fundamental problem: the act of measurement disturbs the system being measured.
Electrons don’t “know” they’re being watched. To measure them you use light (photons) which physically disturbs their wave-like nature. The disturbance isn’t intentional. It’s caused by the nature of the instrument being used to measure. The closer and more entangled the observer, the more contaminated the result.
The result is never purely the state of the particle. It is the state of the particle as changed by the act of looking at it. It’s not about consciousness or intent. It’s just physics.
Founders and innovators have exactly this problem.
You are running the newest version of your product or your latest idea past your network. Your Rolodex is your “instrument of measure.” You want feedback from your network about the value of what you have created.
Think about who your Rolodex represents. The colleague who backed you in your last role. The investor who believes in you as a person. The customer who bought from you before and wants to see you win again. The friend who has watched you build something from nothing and is genuinely rooting for you.
These are not neutral observers. They come to every conversation already entangled with you — with your history, your credibility, your shared relationship. Their bias isn’t dishonesty or flattery. It’s something more fundamental: the relationship itself changes what they measure and how they report it.
That’s the Observer Effect at work. The result is contaminated by proximity, loyalty, and genuine goodwill. Your friendlies respond not just to the technology — but to you. They cannot separate those two things and neither can you.
So you walk away thinking you have validated your product. But what you actually need is to validate your market.
The question shouldn’t be “is the technology interesting?” You need to answer a harder question — one that demos, Rolodexes, and networking events can’t answer:
How does this technology create value within the ecosystem around it?
Who are the natural buyers — and what specific, urgent problem does this solve for them that nothing else does? Where does this sit in the stack — and is there genuine white space, or does an entrenched player already own that position? What are the right channel motions — embedded technology, joint sales, licensing, or a combination? Which investors will find the thesis compelling? Who will help embed, propel and drive your vision forward? And who, in three to five years, will want to acquire this — and are you building toward them today?
Those questions span product, investors, channel, and exit. They are ecosystem questions — not technology questions. And they require an undisturbed measurement that is not proximate to you. They require you to reach into the space where you don’t know what you don’t know; built not from who you know, but from what the market actually tells you when proximity isn’t distorting the result.
That’s what a well-researched go-to-market strategy does. It removes the Observer Effect. It maps the white spaces, the product integration points, the channel dynamics, the buyer personas, the acquisition signals — and builds a clear picture of where the technology creates genuine, differentiated value in the world around it.
And once you have that strategy then take it to your network based on their alignment to your go-to-market plan. Identify exactly who you need to reach — the right level, the right function, the right company — and then use your relationships to open those specific doors. Don’t waste your time on meetings that simply seek product validation. Be deliberate and understand what each outreach could bring you in the context of your longer-term business goals, and drive the desired outcome.
Your Rolodex is not a market strategy, and it can’t truly validate your product. No matter how brilliant an offering, if there is no market for it, no ecosystem to propel it, it is not valuable. But in the hands of someone who has done the ecosystem work first — who knows precisely where the technology creates value and who benefits from that value — the Rolodex becomes a remarkably powerful tool.
Build the ecosystem GTM strategy at formation and then activate your network against that plan.
If you are enjoying the physics and want to learn more about the Observer Effect and Wave-Particle Duality - check out this YouTube video:
Quantum physics turns out to be a surprisingly illuminating lens for a foundational pillar of company success: ecosystem strategy. A little physics. A lot of business reality. And a bit of fun.
This series is called Ecosystem Entanglement™ — A practitioner’s view on commercializing deep tech in hyperbolic markets.
It is written for founders, investors, private equity and enterprise leaders, as well as for anyone who has ever said “we’re not ready for ecosystem yet.” Feel free to bring your questions. Look forward to the dialogue.
A note on the quantum physics: we borrow from it lightheartedly throughout this series. Not to oversimplify a beautiful science, but because entanglement, superposition, decoherence, and Einstein’s famous skepticism turn out to be surprisingly illuminating lenses for the strategic challenges of building and scaling technology companies today.
The physics is real. The business challenges are real. The connection between them is — we’d argue — a little bit spooky.
#ecosystems #quantum #commercialization #startup #valuecreation