Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Product Development: Incremental changes vs. blowing it up

I am currently in the middle of market and customer research to support the next version of our flagship product. The product has good content but the technology is lacking. We compete in the corporate learning market, a market that is undergoing a wave of change due to new Web 2.0 tools and the retirement of the baby boomers. The Boomers are being replaced by younger workers who have grown up with technology and have certain expectations that they think should be met. Most current corporate learning products do not meet those expectations, ours included.

The question arises: do we build for the next generation of users now( blow it up) or perform incremental changes and arrive "there" in 3 years?
I personally favor blowing it up and building something completely new. The market is ripe for change with no real leader in the space. We have the opportunity to be very forward looking, something our customers expect from us. An incremental change will be warmly greeted by our customers, but not in an overwhelming, tell your friends, we have to have this sort of way. The technology is there, we just need use it!

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