How to Fail Cheaply
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Failures in the innovation process can be costly and time-consuming. So why not reduce your failure rate to as close to zero as possible? It's a lofty goal indeed, and one very few innovative companies have ever achieved. Plus, failure is important to innovation — how else do you learn? Rather than eliminating failure, focus on reducing the cost of failure by doing the following three things:
- Make your experiments cheaper. Experiments need not be expensive. You don't need to recreate a concept exactly to test it. Find low-cost ways to test assumptions.
- Change the order of experiments. Test strategic assumptions before logistical ones. Confirm the market need before perfecting a product.
- Make decisions faster. Larger organizations often let bad ideas linger. Accelerate decision-making when it comes to innovation and get rid of flawed projects before they cost you time and money.