Anticipate the book

Risk Taking? Create A Product Instead.

February 17, 2012 in Processes, Product/Market Fit, Risk

It is not possible to know how many products are conceived that never see the light of day, or that never make it past the “passing thought” stage. It is not even possible to know how many times people take a shot at creating a new product and fall flat on their faces. But we can probably make a good guess, and say that new product development is fraught with difficulty, and highly risky for those who choose to invest in new idea.

However, it is also one of the most gratifying experiences life has to offer. Creating a new product from scratch means having to think through the technical processes of the product itself. It means understanding, in advance, what need the product fills. It means gathering the investment dollars required to bring it to market. And it means creating and sustaining a business in order to make the product successful in the marketplace. Failure at any one of these stages will doom the product.

That said, if your product makes it, you will change the ways lives are lived. And what could be better than that?

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Fighting the Good Fight of Differentiation

January 31, 2012 in Culture, Differentiation, Innovation, Product/Market Fit

Sometimes we are victim of our own success, and such has been the case, in one respect, with the modern company. We became so adept at producing – and mass producing – goods that we the trade-off between mass producing a version of an existing product became more appealing than inventing a new one. In the process, we gave ourselves a little heartburn, in the form of runaway price competition.

In some respects, of course, this is a positive development. More consumers have been able to afford more goods than ever before. On the negative side, though, the result has meant increasing pressure on profit margin growth for companies. Price competition inevitably reaches a point at which it no longer contributes to the ongoing health of the company.

Where companies have been able to successfully combat this trend, they have done so by getting off the price competition treadmill and on to a path toward innovative new product development. These companies, thus, have changed the conversation with consumers from “hey, I’ll give it to you for 10% less than the other guy will give it to you,” to one that sound much more like, “look at this great new product that will solve real-life problems for you and make your life better. I am the only one who can give it to you, and it’s going to cost you, but it’s worth it.”

Which conversation would you rather be having?

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The Master of Innovation Speaks: Apple on Apple

January 24, 2012 in Critical Success Factors, Customer Behavior, Ideas, Product/Market Fit

The June 9, 2007 issue of the Economist ran an article titled “How does Apple do it?” After many had left it for dead a decade ago, this is the company that sets the pace in the consumer electronics industry. The article highlighted two main development strategies: First, Apple looks both within and outside its walls for new product ideas, an approach referred to as “network innovation.” The iPod, a notable example, was the brainchild of a consultant that Apple hired to run a project; not an employee. Second, Apple is obsessed about looking at new concepts through the eyes of its customers. Everybody gives testament to the importance of this commitment, but few live it. “If we build it they will come” is a sure path to failure.

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