Many companies develop and lob new products at their B2B customers without first exploring their needs. There may be less efficient ways to understand customer needs than waiting to see if they buy your product… but I truly don’t know what they would be. Years from now, companies will be amazed that our innovation methods were so supplier-centric and inefficient.

See 2-minute video #39, Launch new products with power

Decades ago, Stephen Covey explained in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that we need to balance “P” (production) against “PC” (production capability). Today many companies just focus on this year’s results (P), without building the skills and capabilities needed for future growth (PC). Don’t just hit the reset button and start over again every year. Instead, build the future you want.

More in book, Business Builders, Chapter 9.

Which business leaders do you admire… Henry Ford… Jeff Bezos… Elon Musk… Steve Jobs? Why do you admire them? Because they were great at slashing budgets, running financial review meetings, or giving quarterly EPS guidance? Here’s the irony: Many business leaders behave quite differently than those they admire.

More in book, Business Builders

The #1 culprit for wrong facts is the untested assumption. Someone thinks the customer would like this or that, and the assumption morphs into a “fact” over time. A missing fact occurs when an important question is not answered. The overwhelming reason is… it’s never asked. With proper B2B customer interviews, you can avoid most wrong and missing facts.

More in white paper, Guessing at Customer Needs

In the front end of innovation, though, there are just two ways to fail. An error omission is failing to uncover an unarticulated customer need. An error of commission is choosing the wrong customer need to work on. Funny thing about errors of omission: No one knows you erred… until a competitor launches a blockbuster product.

More in white paper, Guessing at Customer Needs (page 5)

To optimize your efficiency, innovate for the entire market segment. Usually. But some clever Blueprinting users have applied the same interview methods to one large account at a time to reap three benefits: 1) Retention: They work so closely with the key account that this customer doesn’t want to use competing alternatives. 2) Expanded business: Customers naturally want more of their focused help. 3) Pricing: They learn how to modify their products precisely in the ways the customer values most, leading to higher pricing.

More in white paper, Key Account Blueprinting

A new product development process with stages and gates provides helpful discipline. But most suffer from two limitations: 1) Internal focus… talking to ourselves instead of customers. 2) Analytical thinking… promoting a checklist mentality. You also need discovery thinking, with a focus on learning. Unlike analytical thinking, this is fragile and must be nurtured.

More in e-book, Supercharge your Stage-Gate® process