A friend of mine in the medical device space gave me this article while I was in Boston, MA a couple of weeks ago at the Medical Device Connectivity Conference. While the article is directly from Harvard Business Review; I can definitely see the parallel in the medical device space. The majority of medical devices especially get vetted out through user groups, (before a new product development) but this becomes much more complicated when you start to add wireless "connectivity", or such connectivity options. This is paraphrased from the Harvard Business Review.
Flaw 1: The company cannot support fast growth.
The Lesson: Have a plan to ramp up quickly if the product takes off.
Flaw 2: The product falls short of claims and gets bashed.
The Lesson: Delay your launch until the product is "really" ready.
Flaw 3: The new item exists in "product limbo".
The Lesson: Test the product to make sure its differences will sway buyers. In this case from the medical device side, build the business and clinical justification as well as business ROI.
Flaw 4: The product defines a new category and requires substantial education, but does not get it.
The Lesson: If customers cannot quickly grasp how to use your product, it is toast. So when you look at say IV therapy or patient monitoring in becoming a highly commodity base market, what are the technical attributes that can really bring huge business value and reduce risk and save $$
Flaw 5: The product is revolutionary, but there's no market for it.
The Lesson: Don't gloss over the basic question "Who will buy this and at what price."
R&D and Engineering groups take sometimes great pride in the technology, but at the end of the day what is the value proposition?
Ways to Crash A Product Launch
Pre-Launch Phase
1. No market research on the product or the market has been done.
2. Most of the budget was used the create the product, but little is left to launching, marketing, and selling it.
3. The product is interesting but lacks a precise market.
4. The products key differentiators and advantages are not easily articulated.
5. The product defines a new category, so customers will need considerable education before it can be sold. (They do not get it!)
6. The sales force does not believe in the product and is not committed to selling it.
7. Because the target audience is unclear, the marketing campaign is unfocused.
8. Distribution takes longer than expected and lags behind the launch.
9. Sales channels are uneducated about the product, and the distribution channel simply sees this as a long sales cycle. End point they will concentrate on the quick hit.
10. The product lacks formal independent testing to support the claims.
11. The marketing campaign is developed in-house by the manufacture and lacks objectivity. Pride of ownership takes over here, versus outside vetting.
12. The product is untested by customers, only the company can assert its benefits. What have been the customer success stories via clinical improvements and case studies before launch.
13. The web site description of the product launch is unclear, vague and the site is not fully functional. Search engine optimization is not complete on specific word groups.
Launch Phase
14. The product is launched hastily and it does not work in a reliable fashion.
15. The launch is aimed at the wrong target audience. (IT, clinical, or Engineering, or CEO, CIO, or CTO)
16. Supplies are inefficient to fill orders. (We did not anticipate the orders)
17. The product is launched too late at the wrong time. (Not hitting the specific trade shows)
18. The manufacture's claims cannot be backed up.(Where is the testing information and case studies to back this up?)
19. A governing body like the FCC or FDA pulls the product, citing false claims, or yet delayed FDA 510K approval because the reviewer feels in sufficient testing.
20. The product is given a limited "trial", but without public relations, marketing, or promotion to "turn" it.
21. The product is launched without influence to promote it's efficacy.