Every company faces a critical balancing act: do we keep investing in our existing products, or do we leap to new technology? Cash cows provide steady revenue, but they won’t last forever. At the same time, developing new technologies is risky—it requires major investment, and there’s no guarantee the market will respond. This dilemma is especially pressing in high-tech industries, where technology is a key sales driver and capital investments are significant. Making the right call isn’t just about gut instinct, it’s about using data-driven insights to navigate uncertainty and make informed, strategic decisions.
Navigating innovation with data-driven insights
Investing in existing products often feels like the safer bet. A steady revenue stream is hard to walk away from. But what happens when the market shifts? Sticking with aging technology too long can lead to missed opportunities. On the flip side, jumping too soon into new innovations can drain resources without delivering returns.
That’s where innovation life cycle management comes in. Understanding where a product or technology stands – whether in its growth phase, at maturity, or approaching decline – helps companies decide when to invest, evolve, or shift focus toward emerging opportunities. A data-driven approach helps assess market demand, technology relevance, and future potential so that companies can strike the right balance between short-term profitability and long-term growth.
The competitive screen: reinventing the product delivers business value
For a product owner navigating the dynamic landscape, data is paramount. Analyzing market trends, consumer behavior, and competitor performance provides crucial insights into evolving preferences and emerging technologies. Data-driven decisions regarding feature prioritization, pricing strategies, and product development roadmaps ensure that the television aligns with current demands and future projections. By leveraging data on user engagement, viewing habits, and feedback, product owners can optimize the user experience, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly changing market.
The evolution of television technology for instance has been a remarkable journey, transitioning from the bulky cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays to the vibrant and sleek QLED screens of today. This transformation reflects a constant drive to meet evolving consumer needs, prioritizing factors like image clarity, screen size, and energy efficiency. Early televisions, reliant on CRTs, gave way to slimmer LCD and plasma displays, which in turn paved the way for LED backlighting and then the quantum dot technology of QLED. These advancements have drastically improved color accuracy, contrast, and overall picture quality, while also enabling thinner and more aesthetically pleasing designs. In this rapidly changing market, manufacturers must continue to innovate, adapting to new technologies and consumer preferences, to maintain a competitive edge and secure market share and profit margins. Data plays a critical role in product management decision-making.
How data helps you to make the right call
At Verhaert Strategic Innovation, we’ve helped companies make confident, well-timed decisions based on real-world data. This data-driven methodology typically involves:
- Choice modeling in the market: Analyzing customer preferences and willingness to pay for different product configurations and features. This helps determine whether incremental improvements to an existing product are still valuable or if the market is shifting elsewhere.
- Technology relevance studies: Conducting in-depth interviews to assess the value and potential of new or alternative technologies, including potential replacements for existing solutions. This provides insights into whether a current technology has staying power or if disruption is on the horizon.
Turning insights into winning strategies
Understanding customer needs and market dynamics allows companies to make smarter decisions about when to extend, pivot, or phase out innovations. This minimizes risk, optimizes resource allocation, and aligns innovation with both current market needs and future opportunities. Key benefits of data-driven decision-making in life cycle management include:
- Lower risk: Avoid costly investments in technologies that may not be commercially viable.
- Smarter resource allocation: Focus investment on innovations with proven market potential.
- Allocate resources effectively towards innovations that align with market demand.
- Enhanced customer value: Develop products and services that truly meet customer needs and preferences.
- Higher market success: Improve the likelihood of success in the marketplace by making data-driven decisions about product development, pricing, and go-to-market strategies.
When to leverage data-driven innovation
This approach is particularly valuable for industries where innovation plays a critical role in maintaining a competitive edge. Sectors such as aerospace, healthcare, automotive, consumer electronics, and telecommunications often face high investment costs and rapid technological advancements, making informed decision-making essential. It’s especially used in the following situations:
- High-tech industries: Where technology is a key differentiator, development cycles are long, and investment costs are significant.
- Breakthrough technology decisions: When considering disruptive innovations that could create entirely new markets or redefine existing industry standards.
- Limited market insights: When uncertainty exists around customer preferences, adoption rates, or market demand for potential innovations.
To successfully navigate the complexities of innovation investment, companies must base their decisions on reliable data and market insights. Verhaert Strategic Innovation helps businesses turn data into clarity, so they can make the right calls at the right time, driving sustainable growth throughout the product and technology life cycle.
