RGM

Hi, Rita, thank you for linking to my post. There’s a lot of interesting reading out there on doing innovation smartly. I think “Discovery Driven Growth” was published at exactly the right time. I hope every company is reading it and taking its lessons to heart.

I was reminiscing with an old colleague last week about a new product development we worked on. It was a great idea, ahead of the curve, with a great pilot customer, yet it failed. At least part of the reason for failure was our default approach to build the thing “perfectly” (that was me as the product manager) rather than plan it, take small risks, and grow into the market. So not only did it not sell, it cost the company a hell of a lot.

One of the things that Google and other web companies have done is discredit the “launch strategy.” Under the old approach, you kept your product secret while you worked on it. Then, with blazing fanfare, you released it. Then (at least your product plan said) the customers would come.

The current approach of sending out small betas, seeing how people use them, and adapting to the feedback, is so much better.

regards, John