Underperforming products can be the most difficult to explain because everything may have pointed to success.
- The concept made sense.
- The research signaled success.
- The teams were aligned and believed in the product.
And yet, the product underperformed. By the time the problem shows up in the market, the company usually moves on to the next brief without reverse-engineering the cause.
This article introduces an underused lens for preventing that cycle:
The Lens of Innovation
Innovation is Not a Shared Standard
Innovation is often treated as if it is self-evident. However, in product development, innovation is evaluated through different lenses, each with its own priorities.
- R&D cares whether something is technically meaningful.
- Marketing cares whether it is distinct and easy to communicate.
- Business cares whether it can scale and repeat.
- Consumers care whether it fits into what they already do.
These are not just different perspectives. They are different standards entirely.
Products can underperform when innovation is present if what the product considers innovative does not align with what the consumer values.
A Product Can Contain Multiple Forms of Innovation
Innovation can be layered in the product through the formula, the experience, the story, or the business model. As each layer increases confidence, it also makes underperformance easier to miss.
A product can be innovative in multiple ways:
- Technical Innovation: Formulation, ingredient, or system design.
- Narrative Innovation: How the product is framed or packaged.
- Commercial Innovation: Margin structure or portfolio role.
- Behavioral Innovation: How it enters or changes a routine.
All of these can matter but they do not matter equally at every stage, and they do not matter to the consumer in the same way.
By the time the product launches, multiple forms of innovation may have already be integrated into the product.
The question is whether the different forms of innovation still add up to something the consumer can understand, justify, and adopt.
New Only Matters When It Creates Value
Consumer behavior does not always indicate they are looking for newness. They’re asking simpler questions:
- Is this better in a way I can understand?
- Is it clear enough to trust?
- Is it easy enough to use?
- Is it worth changing my behavior for?
Consumers judge innovation by whether it provides them value without creating more friction.
The Problem Innovation Can Create
When innovation is layered across development without being actively tracked, the product can quietly become misaligned.
That misalignment can show up in several ways:
- The different forms of innovation can work together internally without creating enough value for the consumer.
- It can have a sharp narrative but feel impractical in real life.
- It can make sense in the portfolio but ask for too much change in the consumer’s routine.
If that misalignment is not caught early, the market will pressure-test it for you.
Keep the Innovation Lens Active Throughout Development
Strategic anticipation keeps the innovation lens active as the product evolves, because the answers may change throughout product development.
Use these five questions to identify how innovation is being evaluated before launch:
- What kind of innovation is this specifically? Technical, narrative, commercial, or behavioral?
- What definition of innovation is driving decisions right now? Novelty, scale, or something else?
- What is being mistaken for readiness? Internal readiness and consumer readiness are not the same thing.
- Is this the form of innovation the consumer will actually reward? The consumer still has to understand why the innovation is worth adopting.
- Do the different forms of innovation reinforce the same consumer value? Each form of innovation should support the same reason the product matters.
The Goal is to Make Underperformance Easier to Explain
By the time a product launches, it usually has something the team considers innovative.
The goal is to ensure the different forms of innovation are cohesive in the product while making sense to the consumer.
Some difficult-to-explain underperforming products simply did not create enough value to drive the level of adoption the business expected.
—by THE BUILD BRIEF