Are you inadvertently stifling creativity and innovation? Oftentimes, businesses get stuck when their focus turns to listening to customer demands, feature wars with the competition, and internal optimization. Learn how to assess your organization and pivot before losing profits, people, or your competitive advantage.

In 35 years of consulting, Visual Logic has observed businesses following a similar trajectory moving through three stages of product maturity. In Stage 1, new, nimble organizations expect innovation and rapid change. These businesses are often led by engineering and the focus is on function and usefulness. Once success arrives and serious growth is needed, essential processes are put in place but often at the expense of agility and innovation. We consider this Stage 2; it is usually customer led and the focus shifts to feature delivery and incremental improvements. Too often, businesses get stuck here, in a never ending cycle of incremental change fueled by a strong desire to please the customer. Once stuck, it is difficult to move into Stage 3: Design Led. Stage 3 is exemplified by companies who pull their products towards a future vision of their own making (a North Star), as opposed to being pushed by customers, competitors, and media —reigniting innovation within the organization.

Our objective is to describe the organizational energy, atmosphere, advantages, and disadvantages of each stage so the audience can self-identify. From there, we’ll use examples to illustrate strategies to move from the “Stage 2 Trap” into Stage 3, regaining control of their organization’s vision (North Star) and delivering industry leading experiences.