Failure: Why the 'F' word needs a make over.

As published in NZBusiness + Management Magazine, November 2018.

?There’s nothing wrong with 'failure' as a word itself – it just needs a make-over. Preferably a mind-blowing, awe-inducing, full-blown overhaul, like a shocking tabloid expose or reality show reveal.  It’s a perfectly useful noun – it’s just in need of a revamp and refresh. The 'F' word shouldn’t be thought of as a ‘dirty’ word, or a ‘bad’ word - how we use it needs to change. Too often it’s thrown around when things don’t go quite right. Or when something doesn’t work out exactly as we’d hoped or planned.  Or we use it as a derogatory, negative term to blame others, or sometimes ourselves, when we’re disappointed by a less than optimal outcome.  

Most people see failure as a bad thing – as something that shouldn’t have happened, or could have been avoided; as a disappointment, or even disaster. But failure doesn’t have to be all bad. Each mistake teaches us something and brings us closer to success. 

While none of us set out to fail, very, VERY few people get it right first time. The idea of an ‘overnight success’ tends to be just that – an idea.  

When Edison was trying to create a device that produced light from electricity, he is quoted as saying “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work” (Dyer & Martin, 1910). Extensive experimentation and significant re-engineering over many years was required before he patented the first commercially successful light bulb in 1879. 

Likewise, James Dyson spent 15 years creating 5,127 versions of a dual cyclone vacuum cleaner before he made one that actually worked (Dyson, 2014).   

Stories of repeated rejection of now famous actors, singers, writers and sportspeople abound. Had Steven Spielberg, JK Rowling, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey or Lady Gaga listened to their detractors and believed they were ‘failures’, the world as we know it wouldn’t quite be the same. We wouldn’t have Star Wars, Harry Potter, Nike Air Jordans, Dr Oz, or meat dresses. And they wouldn’t be multi-millionaires. Or billionaires.… 

Sir Richard Branson (the billionaire businessman who was expelled from school aged 16 for failing his coursework) has a healthy approach to failure. He’s often said that his key competitive advantage is that he’s not afraid to fail.  His view is that if you fall flat on your face, then at least you’re moving forward (Branson, 2016). 

This concept of failure as a means to success isn’t limited to entrepreneurs, inventors, artists or athletes. It’s relevant to all of us, and to organisations providing products and / or services. But what is most important about failure is that we do it quickly, learn from it, and move on. 

Fail fast, learn fast, succeed faster. 

Traditionally, companies deliver a product or service using a ‘big bang’ approach – it’s released all at once, as a finished, final offering at the end of a sequential design -> develop -> test -> release process. However, if customers dislike what is being offered, they won’t use it, or buy it.  So, it’s best to find out as early as possible if your customers don’t like what you’re creating, as it’s much cheaper and easier to make small changes up front, than fix a product or service that is already in the marketplace.   

This brings us to the concept of MVP.   

MVP 

In an Agile context, MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product. I often reference another important ‘V’ as well - value – as everything we deliver should focus on providing value to our customers or elicit valuable learnings for the team. 

Minimal Viable Product is a term coined by Frank Robinson in 2001 and popularised by Eric Ries in his 2011 book ‘The Lean Start Up’. The idea is to produce a product (or service) with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future development. The aim is to release the leanest possible version of your product or service to market (that still provides value to a customer) with the least amount of effort and cost. The objective is to collect the maximum amount of validated learnings, so they can be incorporated into the next version released. These feedback loops are imperative to continuous improvement and delivery (Ries, 2011).  Ries’s Build –> Measure –> Learn methodology builds on from Shewhart and Demings’ work in this area in the 1940s, and their iterative Plan –> Do –> Check –> Act cycle. 

Releasing a basic product to early adopters allows you to test hypotheses with minimal outlay and risk. If customers embrace your product or service – that’s great! You can take their comments on board to help shape continued design and development. 

However, if customers don’t like your product or service, you want to know as quickly as possible. You most certainly do not want to find out after you’ve expended months (sometimes years) of R&D effort, and significant (sometimes millions of) dollars on development and marketing. Fail fast.  And fail small.  Start by getting a basic prototype in the hands of potential customers to see if they’re interested your idea - when it’s still at the ‘idea’ stage. It can be as low-fidelity as a sketch on a page.  Before you start pouring time and money into creating something, you need to know that there’s a market for it.  Then test your Minimum Viable Product as early as you can with users – and continue to iterate based on genuine customer insights and analytics.   

In this way, MVP reduces risk. It enables teams to learn from direct customer interaction and provides an early opportunity to pivot if the initial offering isn’t popular. If feedback is overwhelming negative, success criteria are not met, and recovery is unlikely, it signals the need to redirect resources into another, more valuable initiative.   

On the flip side, if your MVP is positively received, it can provide a faster return on investment. When customers are paying for early versions of your product or service, those funds can offset initial expenditure or help fund subsequent iterations.   

Another benefit of taking an MVP approach is heightened customer satisfaction, as you’re giving customers what they want – what they really, really want – instead of what you think they want. By utilising customer feedback to develop and release their most valuable features or functions, you’re greatly increasing the likelihood of repeat sales and positive PR.  

Creating a culture where people aren’t afraid of the 'F' word. 

Innovation is often the outcome of initial failure. If we continue do things the way we always have, we’ll get the same results we’ve always had. While that’s acceptable for some people and organisations, most of us need to change the way we do things to remain relevant in this time of disruption and opportunity. 

That means we’re likely to experience some failure along the way.  For us to turn this into success, we need leaders who support and encourage an environment of experimentation and learning. 

Here are some ways leaders can do this: 

Don’t criticise new ideas, be cynical about different ways of working, apportion blame, or punish those who don’t instantly succeed. 

Learn from the past, but don’t take old school assumptions into new situations.  

Admit to mistakes and share some of your failures. This requires courage, but no one is infallible, and showing vulnerability and humility will actually make you a stronger leader. 

Be curious. Experiment. Try new things.  Have an open mind. And hire, and support people, who embrace these values. 

Publicise failure, and resultant learnings, to de-stigmatise the F word. Failure walls or awards send a powerful message that not getting something right, right away, is ok.  

Celebrate success when it does happen! Acknowledge the journey, and reward perseverance and persistence when it’s focussed on delivering a truly customer-centric outcome.   

 It’s a wrap! 

The word ‘failure’ is long overdue a brand refresh. It needs to be repositioned with positive (contextual) spin.  No false news, just an honest campaign to highlight how important it is to fail, how we all do it, and how it’s a stepping stone to success. Then it might not be used as a threat, an insult, or like a dirty word to be ashamed of. For life without failure would be very dull indeed. We just need to make sure we fail small, fail fast, and fail forward. Then we’ll be one step closer to achieving our goal. 

References 

Branson, R. (2016). If you fall flat on your face, you are still moving forward.  Retrieved from https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/if-you-fall-flat-your-face-you-are-still-moving-forward 

Dyer, F. L., & Martin, T. C. (1910). Edison: His Life and Inventions. New York, USA: Harper & Brothers. 

Dyson, J. (2014, 11 August ). Yes, it’s OK it took me 5,127 attempts to make a bagless vacuum. The Globe and Mail.  

Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York, USA: Crown Publishing Group. 

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