Why Does Innovation Often Fail?
It takes 3,000 ideas for every one commercial success. New products launched into market fail often—between 80–95% of the time, depending on your source.
We surveyed 286 leaders in innovation, R&D, and design across multiple industries to discover the most common causes of failure during the innovation process.
We identified nine failure modes that stifle a company’s ability to innovate.
Five are critical.
Innovation wants to thrive. For the first time, we have data that describes what gets in the way.
— Taylor Cone, Head of Innovation Enablement at Delve
Learn the 5 Must-Fix Failure Modes. . .
1. But First, 'Real' Work
- No incentive to innovate.
- Lack of time and resources dedicated to innovation
- Lack of opportunity for teams to experiment
2. Wait, But Why?
- Lack of a single, actionable company vision
- Scattered initiatives and misaligned priorities
3. Infrequent Exposure
- Siloed workstreams
- Insufficient customer feedback
- Lack of industry awareness
- Lack of market exposure
4. Frozen in Time
- Over-reliance on proven ways of doing things
- Lack of process iteration
- No appetite for change
5. Inside the Box
- Lack of divergent, outside-the-box thinking and doing
- Lack of creativity for innovation
. . . And How to Manage Them
All companies face at least one failure mode. And 9 in 10 companies we surveyed—from the most innovative to the least innovative—face three or more failure modes at once.
What sets the most innovative companies apart from the least is how they proactively, consistently, and rigorously manage their failure modes.
"Managing failure modes is both an art and a science. What to mitigate and what to eradicate differs from company to company. A better understanding of the critical failure modes enables organizations to better strategize their approach to manage failure modes."
— Ryan Chen, Executive Vice President of Innovation at Delve
The Five Causes of Innovation Failure
Innovation is hard, but it doesn't need to be as hard as you think.