I hated this reading. There is a reason why economists aren’t entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs aren’t economists. John T Gourville (according to the faculty page on HBS) received his Ph.D. from UChicago in behavioural research, held management positions at Booz, Allen, & Hamilton, Mobil Oil, and New York Telephone, and is a professor of Business Administration. John is someone who has never displayed a propensity for innovation or risk in his career and the companies that he has worked for are not entirely known for being at the cutting edge of innovation. For him to publish an article looking down on the visionaries and risk-takers behind Segway or TiVo is insulting to all founders and entrepreneurs. All I take away from this article is that launching something new is tough, but most readers already know that. To try and legitimize these obsolete notions, Gourville coins terms like the 9x effect but to my fellow peers that are reading this, I advise against making much of this. There is no playbook for why certain products work and others don’t. If there was, everybody would be a successful founder and everybody would have a billion dollars. Sure it is easy to go back in history and come up with reasons why XYZ product failed but know that for every successful iPhone that gave customers a 10x benefit, there is a Nokia N97. To be a successful entrepreneur or even a great product manager, I argue that you have to be engrossed in the world that is comprised by your product. The rest is a little bit of luck, hard work, and good timing.
To answer the question about balancing innovation and buyer resistance, I suggest product managers prioritize user feedback and input above all while needfinding. If you are building something new, make sure that the problem you are solving is a valid and well-justified problem. If you have an idea already in mind, talk to people and make this problem you are trying to solve is actually a valid problem. Your first, second, or even third solution to the problem may be wrong but if the problem you are trying to solve is valid, you will be setting yourself up for success on the fourth or fifth try when you do eventually find something that sticks. If you are just building something that isn’t fixing a broken system but just making it better, I suspect you will have a hard time getting customers. The bias to switch, as Gourville writes, is so much higher because we value losses more than gains. Even if you make a device that can help me write better, high quality texts to my friends, I don’t see a problem with the way I currently text my friends so why would I want to invest time in learning your new system? Thus, I suggest product managers give more emphasis on needfinding and problem validation in early stages of projects before diving into ideation and brainstorming.
