The Power Of Experimentation

You couldn’t have missed it, because we say it over and over again: it is crucial for your organization to be aware of the world around you and to stay informed about how this world is changing. These changes can affect your business model and therefore sitting still is not an option. See the changes as opportunities and look for new ways to create future value for your customers. By regularly examining your business model, you can respond to changes in the market in a timely manner and make your organization future proof.

Perhaps it’s time to renew your business model or develop a new proposition. Many organizations succeed in developing an innovative solution. However, they often discover, too late, that there is no demand for this solution. How can you avoid unnecessary investments and increase the chance of a successful launch? Read on to find out more about this.

Innovation

The expiration date of business models is becoming shorter. A hundred years ago, the same business model was successful for decades. Nowadays, due to changing customer needs and new technologies, existing business models are easily overtaken by new ones. In our rapidly changing world, new products and services are developed and introduced at a rapid pace. Countless startups, for example Lynk&Co and AI copywriting assistant Jasper, are shaking up the established order by quickly rolling out new disruptive business models.

This makes it increasingly difficult for organizations to stay relevant and maintain their market position. Major disruptions in the market can make your organization redundant. An example is the emergence of the Artificial Intelligence tool ChatGPT, which has shaken up the business models of various organizations in various industries.

Do you want to ensure that your organization remains successful in the long term? Then you need to investigate how you will create value for your customers in the future. In addition, you must be able to act quickly. Not once, but time after time. By making innovation part of the DNA of your organization, you can constantly respond to new opportunities and challenges. Keep asking yourself critical questions about the future of your business model. Examples include: How does my organization respond to new opportunities? What does our future business model look like? Where do we as an organization make a difference tomorrow?

The next step

Your organization has created a new proposition, product, service or even a new business model. The underlying idea is often based on assumptions you make about the needs of your customers. This is risky. After investing a lot of time and money in the development, there is a chance that the idea may not resonate with your target audience. How can you minimize these risks and increase the chance of success?

Remember when the Sony Walkman once dominated the personal music market? At that time, Sony had developed a new yellow sports-style Walkman. Sony wanted to test it with the public and organized a focus group. During this focus group there was a lot of enthusiasm among the participants about the new color and design. As a token of appreciation, each participant received a Walkman at the end of the focus group. The participants were allowed to choose between a traditional black Walkman and the new yellow sport Walkman. The unexpected happened: not one of the participants chose the yellow Walkman. This example shows that organizations run risks when launching a new idea, because they only notice after the launch that there is no genuine interest in it.

Don’t worry because you can reduce these risks. Even before you start developing the idea, you can validate the assumptions you have. You can also test whether the idea resonates with your target audience. You do this by running experiments. In addition to validating your assumptions, experiments also help you learn more about your idea and about your target audience. So, you start looking for things you didn’t know you didn’t know. The validations and insights you gain during the experiments help you to make adjustments where necessary. This way you avoid large investments that do not lead to the desired results.

Experiment Design Labs

We see you thinking; how do I run experiments in practice? At Stay Future Proof we have a lot of experience with this. We offer Experiment Design Labs in which we can validate your idea:

An approach to test assumptions that you hold about your target audience
Small tests that cover different chunks of your business idea
Online and offline tests
Simple, fast and cheap

We for example start the dialogue with your customers to find out what their needs really are. Read more about our approach in our Customer Discovery Guide. Other experiments focus on the development and use of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or a prototype. In the Even Rijden client case, you can read how this works in practice.

Are you curious about what an Experiment Design Lab can do for your organization? Then contact us quickly to see how we can help you.

about the author

Carolijn Coolen

Thanks for reading, I hope you’ve gained some valuable insights from the article! I’m Carolijn Coolen, Strategy Designer at Stay Future Proof. Want to learn all about strategy, innovation and transformation? Reach out and let’s talk!

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