What do product managers get wrong when trying to innovate on their existing products?

When striving to innovate on existing products, product managers face a variety of challenges that can impact the success of their endeavors. While innovation is essential for maintaining a competitive edge and meeting evolving customer needs, certain common mistakes can hinder progress and limit the full potential of their efforts. These are some common mistakes that I have witnessed:

• Tunnel Vision on Current Features: One common pitfall is a narrow-minded approach that confines innovative ideas within the existing product's capabilities. This can hinder exploration of new possibilities and limit the potential for groundbreaking advancements.

• Insufficient User Research: Relying on assumptions without conducting thorough user research can result in misguided innovations that fail to resonate with the target audience. Informed decisions should be based on data and user insights.

• Overemphasis on Incremental Improvements: While incremental updates are vital for maintaining the product, solely focusing on minor enhancements may hinder the pursuit of transformative innovations that could set the product apart from competitors.

• Lack of Cross-Functional Collaboration: Successful innovation often requires collaboration between different teams within an organization. Failing to facilitate communication and collaboration between product, engineering, marketing, and other departments can hinder progress.

• Short-Term Focus: Prioritizing immediate revenue and quick wins over long-term vision might deter investment in innovative projects with substantial future potential.

• Ignoring Market Trends: Not keeping a pulse on market trends and industry shifts can result in a product becoming outdated and losing competitiveness. Staying aware of trends helps identify potential areas for innovation.
  
  To foster successful innovation on existing products, product managers should cultivate an open-minded, customer-centric, and data-driven approach. Encouraging experimentation, continuous learning, and a proactive response to market changes will fuel a culture of innovation and enable the team to deliver compelling and forward-looking products.

There are several traps that product managers fall into when innovating on existing products. I'm outlining a few key ones below

Trap: One common misstep is getting too comfortable with the status quo and confusing iteration with innovation. Product managers often fall into a routine, focusing solely on incremental improvements rather than exploring bigger ideas. This risk-averse approach might hinder innovation and prevent them from taking calculated risks necessary for breakthroughs.

Tip: One way to get out of this mode is to ask yourself - If my CEO gets on stage next year at our company conference what is the one thing I should build that deserves 5 mins of fame for this product.

Trap: Another pitfall is a myopic focus on the product itself rather than the broader ecosystem or user journey. Innovation flourishes when you zoom out and consider how your product fits into the larger context—how users interact with it, what problems it solves beyond its immediate use, and how it integrates into their lives or workflows.

Tip: Don't forget to see how your users get into your product/feature and what they do next. You may find that the biggest impact could be achieved by bringing more users in, than continuing to optimize what you already have.

Trap: Lastly, a lack of customer-centricity can hinder innovation. Product managers might become internally focused, prioritizing technical advancements or features without truly understanding or addressing customer needs. Innovation should be driven by a deep understanding of user pain points and desires.

Tip: Dedicate a minimum amount of time to spend with customers each month and do the rounds, you can/should always do more, but the commitment to the minimum is a forcing function to prevent other priorities getting in the way

In essence, product managers sometimes err by being too risk-averse, myopic or internally focused. These are all easy to solve if you remember that everyone -- and I've learnt this the hard way -- falls into these traps. Embracing calculated risks, taking a broader view and prioritizing customer needs can steer innovation in a more fruitful direction