What do you do if your business innovation fails to meet expectations?

True innovation includes many failures so its wise to acknowledge and then extract as many learnings from the failure as possible. How you behave at this point is how effective your organisation will be at innovation from this point onwards so share the learning widely

Even failed innovations can be valuable learning experiences. Celebrate the effort your team put in and the knowledge gained from the process. This fosters a positive attitude towards future innovation endeavours. Here are some additional tips: Fail Fast and Learn Faster: Encourage a culture of experimentation and calculated risks. Embrace Feedback: Seek feedback from customers, employees, and industry experts to learn and improve. Adapt and Iterate: The innovation landscape is constantly evolving. Be prepared to adapt your approach based on new information and market trends.

Failure can be a great source of learning if done the right way. If you set your experiment up in the right way, for example like in the concept of intelligent failure, your upside from learning will be much higher than the downside of failure. The 4 characteristics for intelligent failures: 🆕 NEW TERRITORY: You embark on uncharted territory. Success demands venturing into the unknown, where no recipe book exists." 🎯 GOAL ORIENTED: You pursue a clear and precisely defined goal with your experiment. 🎲 RISK MINIMISED: You ensure the impact of the potential failure is as small as possible. ☁️ HYPOTHESIS DRIVEN: You start with a hypothesis that is either proven right or wrong. That way failure becomes a compass guiding innovation!

Primeiramente, se a inovação do seu negócio não atender às expectativas, reconheça os erros e analise as razões por trás deles. Em seguida, comunique a falha de forma transparente e aprenda com as falhas. Todo processo de inovação traz riscos e existem diversas técnicas para mitigá-los, como planejar ciclos mais curtos de entregas, pivotar quando necessário, testar continuamente as ideias com os clientes etc. Por fim, busque ajustar sua abordagem e estratégia para futuras iniciativas inovadoras. Essas etapas são fundamentais para transformar um revés em uma oportunidade de crescimento e aprendizado, permitindo que sua empresa se adapte e evolua para atender melhor às expectativas dos clientes e do mercado.

The first and most is: "Learn from Failure" Treat the failure as a learning opportunity. Analyze the root causes of the shortcomings and derive valuable insights that can inform future innovation efforts. - Communicate Transparently: Transparent is the most significant way. Be transparent with stakeholders about the outcome of the innovation and your plans moving forward. Acknowledge the failure, share key learnings, and outline your revised strategy. - Seek Feedback: It's most important Solicit feedback from customers, employees, and other stakeholders to gain deeper insights into why the innovation fell short of expectations. Use this feedback to inform your future initiatives.

Certainly. But have a mechanism and an unbiased approach towards feedback. Never take feedback from someone close to you ! Infact get feedback from someone who is neutral and in best case someone who hates you. Again take there words on merits and not emotions. Every feedback will have something which you missed. Importantly Don’t hesitate to ask for feedback.

Seeking feedback is essential when business innovation falls short of expectations. Gather relevant information about what worked, what didn't, and potential areas for improvement. Get feedback from employees, customers, partners, and other stakeholders affected by the innovation project. Create a safe space where individuals feel comfortable providing candid feedback without fear of reprisal. Pay close attention to the feedback received, demonstrating that you value and appreciate the input provided. Focus on feedback that offers actionable insights to inform future innovation efforts effectively. Use the feedback received to make necessary adjustments to strategies, processes, or products to address identified shortcoming

Toda innovacion es un proceso de validación en el mercado. Tenemos una serie de hipótesis que queremos testar y los usuarios, el mercado nos ofrece esta retroalimentación tan necesaria. Debemos ser conscientes de que para identificar realmente los pain points de los usuarios no hay otra forma que halar con ellos.

I like the post-mortem: Collect Data: Project timelines, budgets, communications, and stakeholder feedback. Organize Meeting: Set up a blame-free discussion with all stakeholders for honest conversation. Outline Objectives & Outcomes: Review project goals, what was delivered, and any variances. Analyze Causes: Dive into why things happened, considering internal dynamics and external factors. (use Five Whys). Identify Lessons: Highlight what worked, what didn’t, and areas for improvement. Draft Recommendations: Based on insights, propose steps to enhance future project management, team structure, and technology use. Compile Report: Document the analysis in a comprehensive report, making it a learning tool for future projects.

Building on Maarten's contribution regarding the post mortem: dissect every phase in detail, from the first ideation to the MVP test, and identify the areas of improvement. Do so in a safe environment, and pay attention to group dynamics, since either group think or the blame game can easily derail this exercise. You'd be wise to build into this exercise not only the intellectual, analytical process, but also the emotional one. Mourning a project is important, and the fear of it hanging over future career steps must be addressed and minimised from the beginning. Remember to record the lessons and apply them to the next iteration and share them with other product teams. Making mistakes is a natural part of learning, repeating them is not.

Analyzing the failure is crucial for understanding what went wrong and how to improve. Dig deep to uncover the underlying reasons for the failure. Look beyond surface-level issues to understand the factors at play. Collect quantitative and qualitative data related to the innovation project, including market research, customer feedback, performance metrics, and stakeholder input. Trace the innovation journey from ideation to execution, pinpointing specific stages or decisions where things went off track. Extract valuable lessons from the failure to inform future innovation efforts and improve decision-making processes. Document the findings of the failure analysis, including lessons learned and recommendations for improvement.

Gather data and feedback, try conducting internal reviews, analyze market responses, and gather customer feedback. Surveys, focus groups, and honest conversations with employees will provide valuable insights. Identify root causes, and drill down to the core reasons why the innovation fell short. Was it a flawed concept, poor execution, or a market miscalculation? Understanding the "why" is crucial.

In a nutshell I foucs on what are the big problems in the organization are are and creative an innovative solutions for them l.

➡ Gather and analyze feedback: Collect feedback from various sources, such as customers, and stakeholders to analyze the feedback to gain a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your innovation. ➡ Evaluate your goals and resources: Consider whether pivoting or persevering aligns better with your objectives and available resources. ➡ Consider market conditions: Assess if there are opportunities for growth or if a pivot is necessary to stay competitive. ➡ Weigh pros and cons: Consider the potential risks, benefits, and potential impact on your business and stakeholders.

Pivoting vs. persevering is one of the toughest decisions to make. The more feedback and thorough analysis you gather from your failed innovation, the easier it becomes to trust your gut feeling on whether to pivot or persevere.

Deciding whether to pivot or persevere after a business innovation failure requires careful consideration. Assess feedback from customers, partners, and stakeholders to understand if the failure is due to a fundamental flaw in the innovation or if adjustments could address the shortcomings. Analyze relevant metrics such as sales data, customer retention rates, and market share to gauge the impact of the innovation failure on business objectives. Weigh the risks and potential rewards associated with pivoting to a new direction versus persevering with the existing strategy. If opting to pivot, implement small-scale tests or pilot projects to validate the viability of the new approach before fully committing resources.

La pregunta es ¿de qué te has dado cuenta? ¿cómo influye esto en amanera en la que afrontas el problema o propones soluciones? Pivotar es buscar otra vía diferente de abordar el problema, perseverar es mantener nuestra visión inicial pensando que nuestra hipótesis es cierta. ¿hasta cuando perseveramos? tenemos que ser conscientes y por lo menos contemplar de que tal vez no estemos en lo cierto, o que no existe mercado suficiente.

I agree. Celebrating the learning’s will make you realise that ride was not that bad. One more reason for celebrating is announcing it to people and technically announcing the failure as far as people see it. I had failed couple of times in my startup however what I realised was people started respecting more for trying. Most of new startups would want to talk to you and trust me you owe it to them just as we are supposed to take care of our younger siblings . Celebrating learning will make you more wiser then the looser!

Celebrating the learnings from a failed business innovation is a constructive way to uphold a culture of resilience, growth, and continuous improvement. Recognize and appreciate the hard work, creativity, and dedication of everyone involved in the innovation project, regardless of the outcome. Showcase the valuable lessons learned in the process. Create forums where team members can openly share their experiences, insights, and takeaways from the failure. Celebrate small wins and milestones achieved during the innovation journey, recognizing that progress is often incremental. By celebrating the learnings from a failed business innovation, organizations can turn setbacks into valuable opportunities for growth, innovation, and success

-Focus on the positive side and also even a failed innovation generates valuable knowledge. Celebrate the lessons learned and the team's effort. -Adapt and improve so use the learnings to refine your business model, and future innovations, or even improve existing products or services. -Share the learnings and showcase how you're incorporating the lessons learned into future endeavors. This demonstrates a growth mindset and inspires confidence.

Acredito que as falhas relacionadas às tentativas de inovação não deveriam ter o peso que têm. Obviamente, ninguém quer falhar, mas, certamente a jornada foi fundamental para construção de aprendizado. No entanto, é necessário compilar as lições aprendidas, feedbacks, novas habilidades e estruturar tudo isso rumo a próxima tentativa!

If a business innovation fails to meet expectations, it's essential to approach the situation with a proactive and reflective mindset. Start by analyzing the reasons behind the failure, considering factors such as market demand, implementation challenges, or misalignment with customer needs. Engage stakeholders and team members in a constructive discussion to gather diverse perspectives and insights. From there, pivot or adjust the innovation strategy based on the lessons learned, incorporating feedback and making necessary improvements. It's crucial to view failure as a valuable learning opportunity rather than a setback, using it to refine future innovation efforts and strengthen the organization's resilience and adaptability.