Pivot: How Top Entrepreneurs Adapt and Change Course to Find Ultimate Success

Chapter 14

Acceleration—Courage to Invest¹

You have made it to the other side of the “valley of death” and into a world that should be more familiar to you, product development. My goal was to get you to this point. Let's now focus on what you need to consider for making a smooth landing and ramping up your business.

Acceleration is all about propelling your concept forward, with sufficient momentum and investment to drive for success. Does your company have this courage to invest? I ask this because, when companies do spend the time experimenting and following the mantra of “learning per dollars spent,” we often see that they lack the courage to make the more significant investments required in Acceleration. Or they starve these opportunities by providing only sufficient funds to keep them on life support. It is better to do nothing at all than to set these projects up for failure.

This chapter covers integration of the D-I-A approach with product development. It is not about the details of product development and phase gate processes since this information is readily available on the Internet. Our differentiation is about how to address higher-uncertainty innovation and make a smooth transition into the world of risk.

It is important that we complete the D-I-A framework with the Acceleration principles and tools. This will help you establish a strong footing to propel your project in the right direction with the attention it deserves. Of course, I am making the assumption that ...