Break the Rules!

3It's the Customer's Problem That Matters, Not Your Solution: Problem‐First, Not Product‐First, Logic

 

Long‐time venture capital investor and Silicon Valley observer Bill Joy put it simply back in 2004: “Let's be blunt. Big companies almost never innovate. It's not that innovation is rare—it's occurring everywhere. Which means, mostly, elsewhere.”¹

My family has been a user of Tide laundry detergent for decades. We've seen Tide add blue speckles, to get our clothes “cleaner.” Remove them, to make our clothes “fresher.” Add green ones, then scents, add water so it pours; and so on. Is this what passes for innovation? Really?

Procter & Gamble, Tide's maker, seems to be forever tinkering with its product formulations. Take P&G's Crest toothpaste, for example. It is now offered in so many varieties that it makes my head spin when I—or my wife, Donna, who prefers a different variety—need to buy another tube at the grocery store.

This product‐first logic is the conventional way of life in business today: product line extensions (Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Vanilla and Cherry Coke, Coke Natural: what will Coke think of next?); product improvements or modifications like those of Tide (always “new and improved”); brand extensions (Hewlett‐Packard branded paper for your printer); and more.

New products matter, but …: To be fair, new products, it is said, are the lifeblood of long‐term ...