What to do ! what NOT to do !!

Nearly 300 years ago, in the foot hill of mount Isilis, there were large patches of grape fields. Red, juicy, plump grapes as far as your eyes can see.

There was a small road dividing the grape fields in to two parts. The same road that goes through the cleavage of the mountain to the other side - a small and yet a prosperous town.

Looking at the mountain from the road, all the grapes to the right belonged to the farmers of  Tsne. And the left belonged to the farmers of Nafer.

Both grapes were identical in flavor and sweetness, as the same sun lighted up on them, and the same mountain blocked the clouds to induce rain falls, impartially on both sides of the road.

The farmers were experts in making finest of the wine from the bounty that nature gifted them. They will hand pick the Oak and the Cypress, matured through years of exposure to nature, and ask the lone carpenter of the hill side to build casks to age the grape juice.

The quality of the wood, the controlled exposure to to air, the temperature of the storage, all contributed to make the finest of the wine the region could produce.

Farmers of Tsne and Nafer crossed the mountain to access the town where they sold their wine.  

It was a long journey on a mountainous terrain, that they traveled on wooden pony driven carriages, with the casks mounted firmly, filled with the wine.

The town was their biggest market place. They took their carriages to fairs and sold the wine by glass the revelers and the shoppers as the day turned in to golden dusk.

And when the casks were empty they came back to their villages - Nafer and Tsne.


The lone carpenter of the hill side, built all their casks and all their carriages, for both the villages.

He had seven young, hard working sons to help him.

The two eldest son’s job was to go to the farmers and collect the needs for casks and carriages. Come back and explain them to the other brothers.

Their father guided them on how to cut, chisel, polish and clean the wood in to reliable barrels or carriages.

However, the farmers used to lose a lot of wine spilling from the cask while the carriages trolled on the bumpy mountain roads.

They could not keep the casks sealed tightly, because the hot sun outside, that would change the taste of wine if it is not in contact with some natural air.

The trapped air in the cask has to get out, else the heat breaks the wine to awful taste.

The spilling was inevitable even with the smallest of the holes to air the wine while it traveled the mountain road.

The situation was so bad that during peak summer months they had to stop selling wine as they would either lose most of them to spilling, or the taste would be too foul to entice the revelers.

They tried many tricks, like dumping some cinnamon in the wine, to suppress the smell of sun soaked wine, but to no avail.

Both the village heads sent a message to the carpenter and the carpenter obliged by sending his eldest son to Nafer and the younger one to Tsne.

They went to listen to the plight of the farmers and to find a solution for them.

The elder brother sat down with the chief of Nafer, understood the problem. Took mental note of all the parts of the problem.

Summer months were closing on. The solution has to be ready before the next new moon or else they loose the business for three months.

He was not sure how exactly to solve the problem, he knew his father would find a way with some cork caps with holes.

He had to build something, that blocks the wine from going out but lets the air flow in and out when the cask rides to the town. He had to build that before the summer months.

The younger son collected the same information from the chief of Tsne. He knew his father would use cork to seal some hole cleverly. So he narrated the solution to Tsne chief, helping them visualize that there will be some kind of cork caps at the top of the barrels with some holes. He was not clear beyond that point.

He thought he might keep the option of spicing the wine to hide the sun soaked smell. Thus he suggested, Cork caps with pouches holding some spice dipping in to the wine inside the cask. That way, when the wine is about the spill and touches the cork, it drains a little bit of spice in to the wine.

The villagers of Tsne hailed him for his suggestion.

After a long days work, both brothers came back and told the other brothers to start working. Their father gave them an idea, two use two cork caps with flap bottoms in to the cask.

Both on the top of the barrels. One towards the front and other towards the back. As the wine flows towards the front the flap will close and avoid the spill, while the back flap will open and allow the air to escape. He would suggest the barrels fill a palm below the brink before they roll them on the carriage. As the fluid would move front the back will let the air go in and out, and vice versa.

The elder brother focused on creating the cork caps with hanging flaps at the bottom, that he got completed quickly. He took them to all the casks of Nafer and got them fitted.

The younger brother got stuck putting the pouch of spice that he promised and the villagers loved, along with the flap at the bottom of the cork cap. His father told him, it would take many more weeks to make a cork cap integrated with both a flap and a pouch for spice - both at the bottom of the cork cap.

The villagers from Tsne called up on him and asked to get the caps soon as the summer was setting in. But he had to tell them, that he is making provision to hold black pepper, cardamom and many other spices too along with cinnamon. it needs pouches with different size perforation.

The villagers thought that would be a differentiation. Wine with the smell of different spices. Gave him a few more days to complete and went back.

It still did not complete and Tsne was nervous as it spent entire summer not selling its wine.

They got the cap after many more weeks. Some customers loved the spicy wine. But immediately it turned out to be a great problem. Some liked Cinnamon, some liked pepper. Some liked the cardamom flavor.

And put together all of them were a subset of all the revelers in the town - who drank wine.

But the fragmented opinion of customers, made the villagers of Tsne to spend multiple casks with different amounts with different spices. The logistics of managing the variation was a nightmare. That too, after losing sales for a whole summer, they did not have money to buy a lot more carriages and casks to send smaller casks of different flavors and combinations.

Their differentiation was a burden. Not an asset !

Their business started dwindling as they cursed the young carpenter for his product.

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Its not just innovation, its execution to a timeline to solve the main problem or TTM which is very critical for a successful business to keep going.
And execution agility and simplicity comes from knowing -  what to do, but more importantly “What NOT TO DO !!”.

If the solution turns out to be too big or complex, correct course quickly without ego or attachment.

A clear phasing of the solution in ascending order of priority / usability is the only way to address large product development.

And again, one key thing to get there is to know “What NOT to DO”.