Why Do We Often Ignore This Key Part of Creating and Launching Successful Products?

You know the drill: check out the market, identify the gaps, come up with a strategy to disrupt or create new services or products and then, with the aid of many others in the business, push your baby out into the world.

Unfortunately, only an estimated 1,500 out of 30,000 next products released each year (https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/clay-christensens-milkshake-marketing) will succeed, meaning that all the brainpower, resources, and efforts behind 95% of new products will fall short of the mark.

Many things can go awry in the journey from an idea to a great outcome. However, one area ignored frequently is the need to really engage, excite and listen deeply to internal stakeholders from the start to finish – as in the end, these will be the people responsible for marketing, distributing and executing the idea.

The aim is to ensure that experts in your business are across the relevant research and insights that backs up the thinking, so they don’t waste time debating and can confidently get down to business.

The cross-disciplinary team members should feel their expertise is valued when proposing possible solutions and, to ensure those in the group are on the same page, they should help to determine priorities and relevant actions.

This approach means going well beyond getting buy in. The real win comes from creating a safe, trusted and innovative environment, which produces passionate advocates. These advocates form the vital connective tissue that strengthens initiatives and their evolution from ideation to execution.

This important but often forgotten aspect of product success, underlies a key design principle in Forethought’s Offer Optimisation programs. In these programs Forethought partners with its clients to not only assist with research insights that assist with ideation, refinement, and launch strategy, but also objectively facilitate cross-functional collaboration and engagement to create internal advocates for successful product launches.