{"id":16745,"date":"2020-10-04T19:59:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=16745"},"modified":"2020-11-07T15:05:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-07T19:05:22","slug":"disruptive-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Disruptive Projects: Handling a Market Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How do disruptive projects handle unknown markets? Is it possible to prepare for something you have no information on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Disruptive projects are often uncharted territory. They are disruptive precisely because they are new and not what consumers are used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about how disruptive projects can manage the lack of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Market Research and Disruptive Projects<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s no market research for unknown markets. Most companies and managers make strategies, plans, and decisions based on analyses of market trends and projections based on those trends. Using this data, managers make detailed plans for executing new projects.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is that this approach doesn\u2019t work for disruptive technologies, because <strong>disruptive projects sell to markets that didn\u2019t previously exist, so there are no data to measure past patterns or make projections about future needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exacerbating the problem is the fact that success in disruptive innovations favors companies that move quickly\u2014so companies must act fast, but they have little information to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/create-a-plan\/\">create a plan<\/a> of action.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Solution: Focus Your Strategy on Learning, Not Executing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To accommodate the inherent lack of information, company leaders confronting disruptive innovations need to make strategies and plans around <em>learning<\/em>, not <em>executing<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of outlining how to execute the production and launch of a product\u2014as they would in sustaining technologies\u2014<strong>managers leading disruptive innovations must acknowledge what they don\u2019t know, identify what data they need, and in what order they need it.<\/strong> This discovery-driven planning prevents companies from committing too many resources before they have adequate information.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, teams launching disruptive projects should:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Assume forecasts are wrong.<\/strong> Disruptive markets are unpredictable, meaning that the correct marketing strategies are unknowable. Accept that trial and error is inevitable.<\/li><li><strong>Plan\u2014and budget\u2014for multiple attempts. <\/strong>It\u2019s almost guaranteed that a company will initially choose the <em>wrong<\/em> strategy to market a disruptive technology, so managers shouldn\u2019t hedge all their bets on the first attempt. Instead, build flexibility into project strategies and conserve enough resources to adjust the product and the strategy as they learn more about the market.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Watch customers\u2019 behavior <\/strong>as they begin to use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-products\/\">disruptive products<\/a>. Don\u2019t listen to what customers <em>say <\/em>they want. Until a disruptive product spends some time on the market, neither companies nor customers know who will use a disruptive product or how they\u2019ll use it.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do disruptive projects handle unknown markets? Is it possible to prepare for something you have no information on? Disruptive projects are often uncharted territory. They are disruptive precisely because they are new and not what consumers are used to. Read more about how disruptive projects can manage the lack of information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,104,103],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-16745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-marketing","category-sales","tag-the-innovators-dilemma","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Disruptive Projects: Handling a Market Launch - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do disruptive projects head into unknown markets? You can&#039;t do conventional market research, but you can prepare\u2014here&#039;s how.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Disruptive Projects: Handling a Market Launch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do disruptive projects head into unknown markets? You can&#039;t do conventional market research, but you can prepare\u2014here&#039;s how.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-04T23:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-07T19:05:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/swan-unknown-e1696276924869.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"235\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Disruptive Projects: Handling a Market Launch\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-04T23:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-07T19:05:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/\"},\"wordCount\":401,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/swan-unknown-e1696276924869.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Innovator's Dilemma\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Marketing\",\"Sales\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/\",\"name\":\"Disruptive Projects: Handling a Market Launch - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disruptive-projects\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/swan-unknown-e1696276924869.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-04T23:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-07T19:05:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"How do disruptive projects head into unknown markets? 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