The Four Ps of Product Innovation
By: Harsh Vardhan
Tags: Technology, Innovation, Startup, Product Management, Leadership

The Four Ps of Product Innovation

People, Partnership, Problems, and Persistence — these four Ps hold the keys to break down any resistance and to bring the product innovation to existence.

Image Credit: Pinterest

“Once I got an idea Why not do something like Ikea But instead make things here in America I excitedly told my boss about my panacea He thought I had some hysteria Or side effect from my recent malaria He gave up his resistance when I heavily insisted But gave me so little time to get my idea tested”

95% of innovative startups end after 5 years. 75% of these failures are due to not having a good understanding of customer wants and needs.

Market-centered research has been the focal point of almost all the product innovations that saw the light of the day. This research technique aims to gain a greater understanding of the customer wants and needs. In simple terms, there are four key elements in a market centered research methodology. The first key is to find the most appropriate people who may provide the best insights related to the chosen area of the research. After the right people are identified, the second key is to build an effective partnership with them. This follows by the third key — gaining a deeper understanding of their problems. Finally, the fourth key after we have a good handle on the problems— the power of persistence that paves the way to build a sustainable solution to those problems.

Based on the research and my own experience, I believe that these four key elements (People, Partnership, Problems, and Persistence) are instrumental in the product innovation process. As such, I have given a name to this framework and can be a helpful perk to remember — The Four Ps of Product Innovation. Rest of this article provides more context on the four Ps.

P#1: People

“There was hardly any time to sit on the perch So I quickly began to conduct my search With a criteria to find people who liked Ikea It wasn’t that hard when I bought some gift cards And stood in front of Ikea’s yard”

Key first step in the product innovation process is to identify the people. These people represent future users who will buy and use the product once it’s ready. As such, it’s important to identify the right people. If not done right, this would lead to making wrong assumptions about the product and hurt it after launch.

At times, we choose to work with the internal stakeholders from sales, marketing, or other subject matter experts within the company. This approach is called inside-out. Sometimes there is an organizational bias to do so.

At other times, we work with our future customers, and explore their preferences. This is called outside-in approach that has been proven time and again that it’s a better approach for product to succeed.

Image Credit: Dilbert

However, it’s important to note that, internal stakeholders can act as a good proxy if they are also to use the product in future — this approach adopted by Apple during their early phases.

P#2: Partnership

“I kept looking at people coming out of store Occasionally checking my phone whenever I got bored When I gave some people card, they very much adored We chatted for a while And they gave me their number to call for more”

After we identify the right people, we need to find creative ways to partner/collaborate with them.

image Credit: Pinterest

Building a great partnership/collaboration can be accomplished with two things:

Art of listening: Listening is a powerful art but also hard. If done right, it helps empathize, makes our relationship tight, and takes our learnings to greater heights. Clear and concise speaking: As a human, we usually try to convey lots of information in a short duration. This information overload approach hurts in getting our points go across and often makes our relationship worse. Simple and concise speaking makes a long-lasting impression on the listener and results in a fruitful collaboration.

P#3: Problems

“I called some guys who were not that shy And had agreed to talk more After a warm and cozy intro They began to pore and got to the core Delivery delays and quality were main concerns Some people also called on the issues with the returns I thought I got everything that I wanted to learn”

We so far identified the right people and built effective partnership with them. Now the third ‘P’ is about understanding their problems. The key here is to spend as much time as possible to discover the problems.

“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it” — Albert Einstein

If the problems are not well thought through, we would end up building a wrong product. As such, this step is crucial. I practice the ‘power of why’ (link below) during this phase as it not only helps uncover the problems effectively but also assists in creating alignment within the organization.

P#4: Persistence

After we develop a solid understanding of the problems, key final step is to lead the team build the most optimal and sustainable solution (products and services). This is where our understanding of the problems is thoroughly tested. Goal is to not only guide everyone understand the problems well enough but also make them feel passionate about solving them.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” ― Calvin Coolidge

We can demonstrate a high level of creativity in people, partnership, and problem space but in the absence of persistence to solve the problem, our journey to innovate will reach nowhere near success. Power of persistence makes things happen and takes the product innovation to the finish line.

“Now was the time to talk to my boss He kept staring at the problems I first thought he was at loss But soon he pointed me to some weak spots I wasn’t willing to stop And adamant to connect those missing dots So I asked for little more time and to my surprise He said — fine, your dream is now mine”

Summary

Product innovation is a four-step process — find people, build partnership, understand their problems, and demonstrate persistence to solve those problems. This process framework can be represented as “The four Ps of Product Innovation”.