The Art of Surprise

When I opened the grill last night, I was surprised to find three little gray mice staring back up at me. Though I was a little startled, I could tell that the pulsating little fur balls got the worst of it. It made me think of when I had been surprised, and how seldom it had happened. If I look at the life science marketplace, it is an even rarer occurrence.

So what is a surprise other than a mismatch between what you expect and what you experience? Quite simple from this perspective. On one hand, you definitely want to avoid the negative surprises like lost orders, key employees leaving, missed revenue, or newly discovered flaws in your product about to launch. But on the positive side, when have you released a product that completely surprises the customers and media with its performance, sleekness, or desirability. I suspect your list is short.

The truth is, 99.3% (my number) of all new offerings are incremental improvements to what is already in the market. And if it is in the 0.7% of groundbreaking things, you probably let the cat out of the bag long before you hit the launch button. So what can you do to create that impactful positive surprise? Here are a couple ideas.

• Think long and create great stuff – Though you probably need to roll out new products regularly to keep revenue and growth moving in the right direction, you also need some riskier plays that may have a big impact. Take a portfolio view of your product development and determine how many projects are enhancements, how many are scouting options for assessing markets, and how many are potential grand slams. Depending on your near-term revenue needs and ability to invest in development, a balance across these types of projects is necessary.

• Knowledge is indeed king – Since your development cycles are probably at least 2 years, you need a really good idea of the longer term problems that your customers are facing. What are the systemic challenges that you want to address – is it high development costs, leaky supply chains, low efficacy of therapies, or developing world opportunities?

• Mind the gap – As I mentioned above, expectation gaps fuel surprises. When you do have the good fortune to be on track to take the market to a whole new level, have the discipline to keep a lid on it. Like the upcoming presidential debates, all the pre-debate spinners are trying to set the expectation low so they can pull off the surprise performance.

So rather than stumble upon shocking moments like rodents in your face, take the time and effort to map out a clear path. Know where to go, take big steps, get ready for the launch, and enjoy the benefits of creating a really surprising product.