Dangerous Innovation?

Innovation is a good thing, right? Well, from a business perspective, it can actually hinder growth. As a product manager, it can be extremely compelling to constantly introduce new features. While this thought process is not inherently “bad”, it can alienate users and turn the product unrecognizable. From a consumer’s perspective, it can be scary to have to adapt to large changes in the products. Brand loyalty and trust have been recognized as key factors in a business’s success, which is why it is so important not to add features where the users end up losing familiarity.  The best way to avoid this issue is to listen to the customers. Listen to what they want improved, added, and removed. It is so easy to get caught up in a solution that you think is absolutely brilliant and then end up spending valuable resources to create something that no one actually needs.

Incorporation of Innovation

So, you have listened to the customers and started to develop a feature that you think will resonate extremely well with the customer base. There are further strategies that should be employed to ensure that the features actually land well. This can include introducing features more gradually, allowing your team to truly analyze how the features are being received. It can also be helpful to keep the features optional, so that the customers don’t feel forced into a certain option that they might not like as much. It is also vital to consider how you decide to market the new features being introduced. For example, it may be more advantageous to highlight how it seamlessly integrates into the previous features rather than just the novelty of the feature itself.

Loss Aversion

Loss aversion is an extremely powerful concept that highlights the phenomenon where individuals fear loss more than the equivalent gain. In practice, it might lead users to value not losing what they are currently familiar with over the benefit of what might come with a piece of innovation. For example, if I am familiar with the Canva interface, I may not want them to bring a big change to the platform, even if it brings something “innovative”. Especially when customers are generally satisfied with the overall experience, it is important not to change the product too much and risk downgrading the experience even if it is objectively “better”.  This may be part of the reason Walmart decided not to change its logo too much from its original design. Even though they got a lot of criticism for it, it may actually be very strategic. Even though it can be difficult, it is important to be able to walk the line between innovation and loss aversion.