Step By Step: Iterative Design For Better Product Performance

This post is an adopted and shortened version from the article we co-wrote with Glenn Papalardo, the co-founder of Integral CPG.

Reality of Innovation

Companies often focus on innovations that are close to the core product. There is an objective reason for that - projects focused on disruptive innovation often struggle to meet expectations. If you were able to re-think the innovation process and increase chances of success, it would change the innovation pipeline and enable bolder and more impactful innovations.

Iterative Design

The ‘iterative design approach assumes multiple rounds of improvement (or evolution) of a new offering through intentional consumer exposure, learning, and changes.

Deployment of iterative design helps identify and refine solutions through market-launched product versions. This approach has been successful in industries like tech, automotive, and space exploration, as seen in SpaceX’s iterative testing and learning from rocket landings.

Why is the consumer product innovation process more linear and focused on a single launch event? This needs to change to improve the product journey.

Under The Hood

There are three major drivers for moving innovation efforts towards an iterative design model:

Dedicated funnel for breakthrough innovation - To start, the innovation models need to match the business aspirations, and the aspirations need to differ between core (next 12 months) and big bets with transformational potential for the business. Trying to fit the entirety of innovation activities into a ‘one size fits all’ model will usually result in a process that fits nobody, disadvantaging all innovation efforts.

Right types of learning - Strengthening any concepts is dependent on capturing (and paying attention to) the right type of information. For example, a lot of times the testing process is design to simply vet out ideas, aiming to go from 10-20 initial concepts to 2-3 winning ones. This approach doesn't take into account, that all initial concepts need several rounds of refinement before they are ready for market launch. Focusing on capturing rich context from consumers, often though observations and inference can be critical at uncovering what needs to change.

Iterations embedded in process - The third aspect is a shift to incorporate the voice of the consumer into multiple planned rounds of refinements as a default for these types of innovations. Traditionally, the team may be looking to validate consumer acceptance or “get a pass” for the product launch, which turns the process into a binary, one-time milestone, rather than the ongoing dialogue it should be. Instead, the process can be designed to look for biggest opportunities to improve, with space on act on such opportunities.

There is clearly a lot more to each of these drivers, as well as the overall notion of iterative design, still to be explored.  But even at a cursory level the need for, and benefits of, this approach are clear. 

By having a dedicated approach to ambitious innovations, with appropriate expectations and freedom to intelligently iterate as concepts are put in front of customers, companies can realize significantly better innovation outcomes in their portfolios.