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Article: Product Innovation Done Right

January 5, 2010 | Neal | No comment

ESPN announces the 2010 launch of ESPN 3D

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The article behind the link above discusses ESPN’s pre-CES announcement that it will be launching a new network ESPN 3D in conjunction with the release of new 3D HD televisions in 2010. On the face of it, it is just an interesting story about a potentially exciting evolution in the distribution of sports content for people who are interested in that content. What interested me about this article (beyond being a huge sports fan who is now looking forward to seeing how well the 3D technology improves upon normal HD as a viewing experience) is a lesson that all product development organizations should be taking to heart during the innovation process – getting partner/customer commitments BEFORE the big innovation spend.

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I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of corporate product development groups and one of the things that has consistently struck me is the extent to which they want to go through the entire process from idea to build to launch before getting customers to commit to participating in a meaningful launch only to find that the market is not nearly as interested in their innovation as they’d hoped.

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By partnering with ESPN and getting their announcement ahead of product launch, the coalition of TV manufacturers and others that worked on the 3D standard have guaranteed that there is now an excited audience that is anticipating their product (sports fans) and that there will be headline content supporting those products (ESPN HD) when it is launched. They have even given themselves leverage in negotiations with carriers who will be looking to capture customers based on having the content that will work with the latest and greatest devices.

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The next time your organization is looking to innovate (as opposed to evolving an existing product set), make sure you are following this model and get some meaningful commitments BEFORE you spend the money to actually build the product. You will save money on investments in mediocre product ideas and you will build sales momentum for yourself with the ability to announce pre-launch commitments that will make it easier to sell to other partners post-launch.

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[UPDATE] Quickly after ESPN announced ESPN 3D, Discovery announced their own 3D initiative.


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