Caffeinated beer, yogurt shampoo, fortune cookies for dogs, clear Pepsi, Ben-Gay aspirins, mountain bikes made by a gun manufacturer, packaged dinners made by a toothpaste company, bottled water for pets, disposable underwear.
The list of failed products goes on and on.
And don’t you think most just sound like bad ideas right out of the gate? Yet, someone made each and every one of these – and brought them to market expecting super results.
Each was greeted with a resounding thud. Crickets.
You could say that’s the end of them. But not so fast! Every year hundreds of people “visit” them in the Museum of Failed Products.
There’s something to be learned from failure.
The same is true for us. Something can…and should be unearthed from our failures.
Our customers tell us what they want. They just, unfortunately, don’t send us emails or call with their specific requests.
Instead, they vote with their dollars and feet. They give you hints by the emails from you they open (or don’t). They indicate their preference by opting-in (or not).
If you’re like most businesses, you created something you were *sure* would work, and it didn’t. Did you take the time to look at what happened? To learn from the feedback you got from customers?
Or did you curse the heavens, cry in your pilsner and move to something else?
Take inventory of your wrong turns. Use what you discover to create a revised Master Plan (you’ve got one of those, right?)
Go forth and do great things.