The Vitality Index—% of revenue from new products—is a fine metric. But it is 1) not predictive… it’s a lagging indicator only revealing what’s already happened, 2) not prescriptive… it doesn’t say how to improve, and 3) not precise… often ill-defined and easily manipulated. Keep it, but supplement it with two new metrics, the Growth Driver Index and Commercial Confidence Index. These measure your progress on building growth capabilities and customer insight, respectively. Check out this 2-minute video to see how easy these metrics are to implement, Employ new growth metrics.)
More in white paper, New Innovation Metrics.
We researched this question with a survey of 300+ B2B professionals, examining these VOC skills: 1) Secure interviews, 2) Proper interviews, 3) Impress customers, 4) Uncover all needs, 5) Probe for meaning, 6) Probe for value, 7) Quantitative VOC, 8) Virtual VOC, 9) VOC debriefing, 10) Prioritize needs, 11) Segment market, and 12) Business case.
Can you guess which skill most differentiated the winners and losers in terms of new product development success? It was #10, Prioritize customer needs. The #2 skill wasn’t even close. So if you’re not conducting quantitative interviews to prioritize customer needs with confidence, you’ve got some serious “upside” to pursue. See 2-minute video, Quantitative interviews are a must.
More in white paper, Market Satisfaction Gaps.
The “fast follower” strategy seldom works, for a variety of reasons. One is that it’s often just an excuse for the lack of innovation, and isn’t supported by needed fast-follower capabilities. Next time a business leader touts this “strategy,” ask if they’ve invested heavily in a) early-warning competitive intelligence, b) robust patent minefield-avoidance competencies, and c) ultra-fast scale-up capabilities.
Unless they say “yes,” their fast-follower claim was just an excuse for avoiding Job #1: Understand and meet customer needs better than others. When you excel at Job #1, you’ll grow faster, more profitably, and more consistently than those shuffling along behind you trying to catch up.
More in article, Chasing the Fast Follower Myth
Want a product development strategy that ensures your new products will consistently beat competitors’? Follow these three steps. The good news is your competitors are probably ignoring—or doing a sloppy job—of the first two. Better yet, we’ll present evidence these steps make a difference. We’ll close with several examples. You can think of product development ... Read More
Extruder Die: This “output” represents your financial results. Fast-moving, high-quality output is like top-line growth and profitability. Feed Hopper: These are market-facing innovation projects supported by customer insight. Drive Screw: This is the work needed to transform the feed into high-value products, done by skilled, focused people.
The only way to get better extruder die output is to focus on the feed hopper input and drive screw horsepower. Watching the extruder die is just a spectator sport. Which is precisely what you’re engaged in during financial reviews. Wouldn’t you rather be in a participant sport? Then go to your feed hopper, and work on new products customers will love. See 2-minute video, Extend your time horizon.
More in article, B2B Organic Growth: 8 top lessons for leaders.
