The best of intentions
Wednesday, June 14th, 2006
In Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki spends a bit of time discussing some of the side effects of product innovation: finding unintended customers and learning about unintended uses of a product. He even provides a nice grid to show the collective importance of this unintended event.
When we begin the process of building our businesses, we begin the process of making assumptions. We rarely have the time to fully vet those assumptions, and if we did, we would rarely do anything else.
With those assumptions in hand we begin to frame our way of thinking and our actions to conform to those assumptions. Further, our we see the world through these frames, so we find validation where it may not really exist.
What am I talking about? Well, here’s an example that might help. Let’s say that I work in a company that produces deodorant.
Let’s say that the company has placed a sales objective of growing product revenues by 15%. Now I don’t know anything about this industry, so this may seem crazy, but imagine that type of growth would require a killer new product to satisfy that number.
Let’s go on to assume that there is a new trend which indicates that an organic root which is relatively cheap to produce can be added to the recipe to make the antiperspirant properties stronger and offer an alternative to the aluminum based compounds currently used. This, some would tell you, would offer a perceived health benefit to the organics market.
Ok… enough of the set up. Let’s say that the recipe change makes the product fulfill the needs as a bug repellent which is more effective than Deet. Should the company seek to reposition the product? Or accept the unintended use? What about the new customers to the deodorant? Should they be discouraged from buying the product?
In practice, the assumptions we enter into the product innovation process rarely hold up. More challenging is the fact that often, we find that our customers are not who we expected and the way they are using the product is not what we were prepared for. Further, it typically takes us a very long time to figure this out…
Is there a better way to operate? With out a doubt… but in today’s market place, that takes time, energy, dedication, and a relentless pursuit of knowing the customer.
