Here are eight common errors that I\u2019ve seen (and made) when it comes to shipping new products to market. Here\u2019s hoping this article can help you avoid some of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The longer you take to ship a product to market, the slower you are to iterate based on feedback from customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unless you\u2019re confident that your first version is right on the money, which rarely happens, you should optimize for speed instead. Focusing on speed allows you to fix your mistakes and move on to a better version of your product quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Validating demand for one specific value proposition often isn\u2019t enough to convince customers to switch from the product they\u2019re using. Your solution must meet their baseline expectations for other \u201cmust-have\u201d elements in the end-to-end value chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A hefty 72% of innovations fail to monetize, according to Simon Kucher & Partners<\/a>. It\u2019s painful to design, build, and only thereafter market and price a product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For success, flip the script. Start with price and value, then design the product around these inputs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting distribution often turns out to be harder than building a product. Therefore, work backward from your customer segment, value, and price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Identify what channels you\u2019ll use to reach the customer segment and how you\u2019ll reach these customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your product team shipped a minimum viable product<\/a>, but salespeople don\u2019t want to sell it as a new product may make it hard to hit their targets. Now what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avoid this problem by starting a \u201ctiger team\u201d: a cross-functional unit whose goal is the success of the new product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have multiple \u201cowners\u201d on the tiger team, the new product efforts will be pulled in different directions, slow down, and ultimately fail. Nominate one directly responsible individual to lead the efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New product efforts usually start with lots of enthusiasm but can quickly lose steam as time goes on without obvious results. If you still believe in the product\u2019s potential, you\u2019ll need leadership buy-in to extend the time given to the tiger team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes new products never find their legs, but they continue to run in zombie mode, draining resources from the organization. Typically this is due to poor customer discovery at the starting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing when to just shut it down and try again is a valuable skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Image credits: Timmy Leon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article originally appeared as a post on my LinkedIn page<\/a><\/em> and later on Tech in Asia<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here are eight common errors that I\u2019ve seen (and made) when it comes to shipping new products to market. Here\u2019s hoping this article can help you avoid some of them. 1. Overengineering the first version instead of moving fast The longer you take to ship a product to market, the slower you are to iterate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-product-management","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/why_products_fail-600x400.gif","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/why_products_fail-600x600.gif","author_info":{"display_name":"Dexter","author_link":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/author\/dexterzhuang_e0ck2v\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1778,"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions\/1778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dexterzhuang.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}4. Devising your go-to-market strategy after the product<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. Lack of cross-functional alignment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. No single-threaded owner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
7. Lack of leadership buy-in<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
8. Killing underperforming products too slowly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n