Slow and steady wins the race towards business innovation
The main driver for business innovation is profit. But, moving too fast can cause costly pitfalls. Moving slow to go fast is a better long-term strategy—a wise tortoise once said that. And moving slow doesn’t mean you’re not making moves and hustling, you’re just now moving with intention. How should companies move forward at a slow and steady pace in order to gain momentum?
01—Awareness: Recognize that the end-user experience starts with the company’s internal culture. Companies should be innovating with the customer at top of mind and not pushing products that they think the market needs. Put in the time to do thorough market research before committing any time to production.
02—Evaluate: Companies need to take time to understand their blind spots and work to implement processes that correct those disconnects. A broken or half-functioning system, no matter how quickly it’s moving, is never as effective as a fully functioning system that is moving at a steady pace.
03—Iterate: Innovation or achieving greatness is not evidenced by a sudden breakthrough, rather through a steady march forward. Take the time to iterate on your product with guidance from market testing before releasing it to the masses because first impressions matter. You only have one shot to make a good first impression, and it only takes one bad experience to lose customer confidence.
The now-defunct Facebook (now Meta) motto of “move fast and break things,” has left more things broken than built, including Meta itself which recently got hit with its first major lawsuit for violating federal securities laws. They moved fast, and it turns out no matter how big a brand’s budget may be, it cannot afford to cut corners. The fact is, the world we live in requires brands to be experiences, products to be useful, and organizations to be responsible.
Relationships Are Key To Business Innovation
There’s no indication that these expectations are going to slow down or change. Sure we’ve seen companies move fast, break barriers, and move ahead of the competition, but it came with a price. These brands faced great risks by doing so and oftentimes big losses along the way. The longevity of a brand lies in its relationship with its customers. Moving fast leads to broken processes and mediocre end results which ultimately creates a poor customer experience. Brands need to prioritize customer experience which requires doing things right the first time around. Establish trust with customers by producing a consistently positive end-user experience, take accountability when things don’t turn out for the best, and put in the work to win them back.
Curious how you can move slow to go fast and gain a competitive edge? Let’s chat.