SPEXOR - Sidney

You’re Sidney, a product-focused executive working to drive innovation in a large corporation.

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For the past year, you have been partnering with Robin in co-supervising a project called SPEXOR. Robin is a marketing-focused executive, and you two should make a good team in elevating ideas to their greatest potential through critical strategic and creative decisions.

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SPEXOR is a B2B software to be marketed to businesses in various sectors. This is not part of your company’s main business. But the company recently decided to expand to these new side-ventures mainly to reduce risks and increase profits in the medium term.

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When SPEXOR started, hopes were high, and forecasts were promising. There were several good reasons for this optimism: The technology of the product is advanced and better than other alternatives in the market. The product team you’re managing is competent, well-prepared, and dedicated to the success of SPEXOR. And Robin’s marketing team had confirmed through their research that the market has been waiting for improvements in the product for some time.

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After months of development and small experiments, the first major test with the product took place 4 months ago. There were some glitches and problems, but these are expected and can be dealt with. As a result, both of you were motivated to seek customers in the market.

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Since that first test, several companies showed initial interest but backed out after a few short meetings. They ultimately all preferred a more well-known brand. These hits and misses are not that surprising, given that you’re a new player. They simply don’t know you yet.

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Then a medium-sized retailer showed the first real enthusiasm to buy the product. After lengthy negotiations, they were ready to switch to your solution instead of adopting the familiar but less impressive products by existing players.

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Unfortunately, however, the deal fell through at the last minute, as one of those existing major competitors did something unexpected. They cut their prices to such low levels that competing with them became impossible. They were essentially making a loss and promising future updates until they run you out of the market.

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As a product-oriented person, you know well that they’re unlikely to realize those updates. They are promising these to lure people in. But their strategy worked. You subsequently lost three other potential clients in the following months due to the same reason.

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Paradoxically, these losses also give you hope about the product. Your team was so successful in innovating within the market that one of the biggest players in the market is fighting with everything they’ve got. This is an indication of your product’s value.

 

A bit demoralized of the lack of sales, you recently consulted your product team about their views. They told you that they clearly see light at the end of the tunnel. They have done all the necessary updates, pulled all-nighters to correct mistakes, and did all of this with enthusiasm, dedication, and professionalism. You’re truly proud of that process. Now they just need more time and resources.

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All of this brings us to today. There’s no denying that the results are not meeting the expectations so far. But the road to success is full of obstacles. You and Robin need to meet and decide on how to proceed.  

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• Should you commit more resources (time, money, effort) to SPEXOR as it is?

• Or should you quit or pivot significantly from the current path to an alternative objective?

 

Your current position agrees more with the first option, but you’ll need to be persuasive. Quitting may be damaging to your and your team’s reputation, and pivoting would involve creatively changing the project’s scope or function almost completely over the next months. On the other hand, continuing the operation as before will also be a hard sell, given the track record so far.  

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How would you discuss and approach such a “quit vs. commit” decision, and in general how to make the decision whether to revise a specific objective?