Congratulations, your application for membership to the Market Inspired Innovation group has been approved – Welcome.
Do take a moment to look at the Group rules before you start posting comments. We want to ensure the highest value debate for the benefit of the group.
Disruptive innovation is a 2-way process, first, you’re trying to understand the market so that you create the best most differentiated solutions, but you can still fail if the rollout is any less than flawless.
Geoffrey Moore in his Bible for high-tech innovation launches talks about “Crossing the Chasm”. Assembling the “Invasion Force” so that you get the maximum market traction.
It’s not about your company, your technology, your product, or your sales ability. Instead, you’re hosting the argument within the market for and against so that the market comes to the correct conclusion.
Apple users sell Apple products on your behalf, enthusiasts will fight it out until the debate is won or lost. Your role is to feed the debate with accurate, objective facts. If you did your homework right and you engineered the right level of market engagement you will win. If you fail in either camp you lose.
The Sony Betamax tape was good, arguably the quality was better than its rival VHS. But the market cared less about picture quality than extensive film choice at their local video store and so they lost!
Conversely, Sony got it to spot on with their Walkman phenomenon because they correctly determined that it was alright to lose the speakers and recording heads in favour of miniaturisation. Customers didn’t care about the speakers or recording features when they are sitting on public transport listening to their favourite music.
In my old industry, when we launched ABS we had a lot of concerns that never really materialised. For instance, we agonised over a system that took off the brakes just when the driver’s foot was demanding more braking.
When we undertook all the engagement studies with real drivers (not test drivers!) they cared more about not spinning out of control when braking than stopping at the theoretical minimum distance. The market introduction took an eternity, but when the market debate had coalesced into clear approval, then the adoption rate was truly breathtaking.
So in the debate, we want to hear about your stories. What worked, and what didn’t? How did you correctly get to market priorities, market segmentation, implementation, and then market rollout?
Have you ever got QFD to work? Have you tried ethnographic observation, what are your preferred quantitative methods? And how do you recruit prospects at each stage of the innovation cycle?
What about Open Innovation? Or Agile development? And so on…
Now click to join the debate, introduce yourself to the group, and exchange experiences.