I led plista, a 100-employee tech company for almost eight years. I had a team of bright, talented individuals and knew the potential was there. I saw flashes of brilliance and heard great ideas in meetings.
Yet, despite the talent and potential, something was off. The team was moving at a snail’s pace. And there were a couple of reasons for that.
We suffered from a large tech debt accumulated over the years, especially before the company’s acquisition by WPP, the world’s largest advertising company. On the other hand, great ideas got bogged down in endless discussions and bureaucratic red tape. Meanwhile, I saw competitors launch new products and grab market shares.
I felt the pressure. WPP was going through some challenges which led to significant reorganization with operating companies being shut down, others being merged, and cost-cutting initiatives being rolled out.
Missing out on market opportunities and becoming less relevant to the group kept me up at night. I saw the industry evolving rapidly and worried that we were falling behind. Every delay felt like a nail in the coffin of our potential competitive edge.
I know I’m not alone. This is a common story among business leaders. The excitement of innovation often gets crushed under the weight of slow processes and internal roadblocks. But over the years, I realized that it didn’t have to be this way.
I’ve navigated these very challenges in both billion-dollar corporations and more nimble startups. I’ve seen firsthand the difference between teams that just talk about innovation and those that actually deliver it. My experiences (and failures) taught me a critical lesson: while great ideas are abundant, the ability to execute them swiftly and effectively is what sets successful companies apart.
To solve this, I started looking for a method that would allow us to bring ideas to market faster. And I ended up building a practical approach inspired by product development methodologies and honed through real-world experience. One of the key elements of this system is cross-functional coordination. Just like in sports, where every player knows the playbook and their role in executing the play, your company needs a common methodology for launching new products, opening new markets, or testing new sales channels.
By developing a shared playbook, everyone in your company — from marketing to engineering to sales — knows what is supposed to happen, how the play is constructed, and how it should be executed. This common methodology not only speeds up innovation but also ensures that everyone is on the same page, reducing miscommunication and enhancing collaboration.
In this story, we’ll explore the common pitfalls that slow down innovation and introduce you to the system I developed to overcome them. You’ll learn how it can transform your team into a powerhouse of swift execution and constant innovation. By the end, you’ll have actionable insights and strategies to boost your team’s performance and regain your competitive edge.
Innovation is often seen as the lifeblood of a company’s growth and competitiveness, but the journey from idea to market is fraught with obstacles. Here are some of the most common problems I’ve observed or faced that hinder innovation:
These common problems highlight the need for a structured, systematic approach to innovation. By recognizing and addressing these obstacles, you can create an environment where new ideas can flourish and be brought to market quickly and effectively.
A sluggish innovation process will hurt your market position, financials, and team morale. Here are some of the most significant consequences of slow innovation:
Slow innovation means missing out on market trends and customer needs. For instance, if your team takes too long to develop and launch a new product, you might find that competitors have already filled the gap. By the time your product hits the market, it might be outdated or redundant. A classic example is how Kodak, once a giant in the photography industry, failed to capitalize on the digital revolution. By the time they attempted to catch up, the market had moved on, leaving them behind.
In fast-moving industries, timing is everything. If your innovation cycle is slow, you risk reacting too late to emerging opportunities. This delay can lead to missed partnerships, lost customers, and a diminished brand presence. BlackBerry’s slow response to the rise of touchscreen smartphones allowed Apple and Android devices to dominate the market, leading to a significant decline in BlackBerry’s market share.
Lengthy, untested projects are fraught with risk. The longer it takes to bring an idea to market, the greater the chances that something will go wrong or that you’ll build something customers don’t want. Market conditions can change, competitors can release similar products, or customer needs can evolve. Microsoft’s Windows Vista faced multiple delays and when it finally launched, it was plagued with issues and couldn’t meet user expectations, leading to a costly and reputation-damaging failure. That’s what happened at Pista when we tried to launch our platform in Canada. It took so long that when we were ready leadership changes in our sister company basically killed the project.
Slow innovation can lead to significant wastage of resources — time, money, and effort spent on ideas that may not work out. The longer you invest in a project without testing and validating it, the higher the sunk costs if it fails. This can demoralize your team and strain your budget. A poignant example is Google’s Google Glass, which despite significant investment, failed to gain traction in the consumer market due to a lengthy development cycle that didn’t adequately address market readiness and user experience. Meta’s investment in the metaverse demonstrates the same problem.
The financial impact of slow innovation can be significant. Consider a startup with a burn rate of $50,000 per month. Over a few months, they could easily spend $200,000 to $300,000 on an idea that fails to take off. For a company with $20 million in revenue and a staff cost to turnover rate of 30%, the costs of pursuing untested new ideas can quickly add up to $200,000 to $500,000. These financial drains can be devastating, particularly for smaller companies and startups that don’t have extensive cash reserves. Pebble, the smartwatch pioneer, despite early success, struggled with slow innovation and lengthy product cycles, leading to financial difficulties and eventually being acquired by Fitbit.
By addressing the root causes of slow innovation, you can minimize these risks and ensure your company stays competitive, agile, and ahead of the curve.
Let’s dive into my journey to illustrate the challenges and triumphs in accelerating innovation. My background is a mix of successes, mistakes, and valuable lessons learned along the way. Here’s a closer look at my experience and how it shaped the development of the Growth and Innovation System.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work in various roles across multiple industries. From strategy and international business for a $20 billion company in the aerospace sector to consulting for one of the Big Four firms, I’ve seen the innovation process from different angles. My roles have ranged from supporting large and small organizations in expanding into new markets to being part of the executive committee at Xaxis, a $1.5 billion programmatic advertising company under WPP.
Innovation is a journey filled with trial and error, and I’ve had my fair share of both. One of the most significant lessons I learned came from a failed attempt to launch a platform in India. We invested months of energy and substantial financial resources, only to watch the project fizzle out. The pain of that failure was a stark reminder of the importance of moving fast and chunking down the project before diving headfirst into development.
In another instance, I led a team of project managers and engineers to build a product that we believed had great potential. Despite the hard work and dedication, the product only generated a few thousand dollars in revenue over three years. Our product simply didn’t meet the needs of our customers. This experience highlighted the need for better hypothesis testing and quicker validation of ideas.
Not all my attempts at innovation have ended in disappointment. There have been notable successes that underscored the value of a structured approach to innovation. For example, we managed to generate five-figure sales within a few weeks without writing a single line of code. This success came from leveraging existing technology and focusing on market demand rather than building from scratch. With that pipeline, it was much easier to commit additional resources to the project.
Another success story involved launching a new social native ad product that nearly reached a million in revenue. We achieved this by relying on existing technology and minimizing the development time, which allowed us to bring the product to market quickly and efficiently.
These experiences, both good and bad, led me to realize the critical importance of execution. I don’t like quoting Steve Jobs, but he talked a lot about a disease people have when it comes to innovation. He said:
“It’s the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work, and that if you just tell all these other people, ‘Here’s this great idea,’ then of course they can go off and make it happen. The problem with that is there’s a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product.”
It’s not enough to have a great idea; the ability to implement it swiftly and effectively is what makes the difference. This realization was the driving force behind the development of the Growth and Innovation System — a method designed to streamline the process of bringing new ideas to market.
Our system is grounded in principles from product development and evidence-based methodologies. The idea is to apply these principles across the entire company, ensuring that every department — from marketing to P&E to sales — follows a unified playbook. This common methodology ensures everyone knows their role and how to execute the strategy, much like a sports team operating with a shared playbook.
Our system fosters cross-functional coordination. I know this may sound like corporate bullshit, but if you master that one organizational skill, you will have built a true innovation machine. In most companies, each department has its own tool kit. Sales has its sales playbook , product uses a series of frameworks and processes, engineering leverages a bunch of tools and methods , and customers success uses its own approach. The setup creates separate teams speaking four or five different languages. By having one standardized methodology, we ensure that all departments are aligned and working cohesively towards the same goals. Whether you’re launching a new product, opening a new market, or testing a new sales channel, having one playbook for all departments ensures alignment and reduces miscommunication. Everybody knows what the next step is. It makes it easier for teams to collaborate and move quickly from idea to execution.
These lessons and experiences have shaped my approach to innovation, making it more structured, data-driven, and collaborative. By implementing these strategies, you can overcome common obstacles and transform your team into a powerhouse of swift execution and constant innovation. Let’s see how you can apply these insights to your organization.
Here’s a detailed look at the core components of this system and how it can transform your company’s approach to innovation.
A structured prioritization framework helps bring order to the chaos of idea generation. Instead of having unstructured debates, this framework ensures that all relevant factors are considered. It forces you to evaluate ideas based on their potential impact, feasibility, and alignment with strategic goals.
We use the ICE model to score and prioritize ideas. This model assesses:
Whenever your discussions start to go sideways, you can bring back the team to these three criteria. By scoring each idea on these three dimensions, you can prioritize those that are likely to deliver the highest value with the least effort and risk.
The Minimum Viable Test (MVT) is a cornerstone of our system. Unlike the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which focuses on building a stripped-down version of a product, the MVT is about testing specific hypotheses with minimal resources. This allows you to validate assumptions quickly and cheaply by gathering data points and evidence.
When running MVTs, focus on testing critical assumptions. You can easily get lost in a long list of assumptions, but in general, there are a couple of key hypotheses to test:
Instead of having your team sell ideas, you want them to have a way to discard them quickly based on what evidence you have. To be able to do that, your innovation process must be driven by data, not gut feelings. By adopting a data-driven approach, you ensure that your decisions are based on evidence, reducing the risk of pursuing unviable ideas.
A useful tool in our system is the confidence meter, developed by Itamar Gilad. It helps teams gauge how confident they are in the data supporting an idea. By moving up the confidence meter through continuous testing and validation, you increase the likelihood of success.
Implementing a successful innovation system requires developing the right habits. James Clear, in his book “Atomic Habits,” emphasizes the importance of building systems that support your goals. His book focuses more on developing personal habits, but I found it extremely useful in a team context. Here are a few principles to follow:
You shouldn’t have to outsource innovation to a specific department. Whether you’re launching a new product, opening a new market, or testing a new sales channel, having one playbook for all departments ensures alignment and reduces miscommunication. This common methodology makes it easier for teams to collaborate and move quickly from idea to execution.
By implementing the Growth and Innovation System, you can transform your company into a powerhouse of innovation. This structured, data-driven, and collaborative approach ensures that your best ideas don’t just stay on the drawing board but are brought to market quickly and successfully. Let’s move forward and see how you can apply these insights to drive your company’s growth and success.
If you’d like to transform your team into a better innovation machine who quickly turns ideas into value creating products and initiatives, check out our Fast-Track Innovation Workshop. This hands-on, practical workshop will provide you with the tools, strategies, and mindset needed to implement the Growth and Innovation System in your organization, ensuring that your best ideas don’t just stay on the drawing board but are brought to market quickly and successfully.
