The Problem
Companies Waste Millions
Building Solutions Nobody Wants
In today’s competitive landscape, technical organisations can’t afford to spend years developing products that don’t solve real customer problems.
500+
Initial ideas needed to find one successful product
€28M
Saved for one client by killing one project early
80%
Of development waste from unwanted solutions
Sources: Denis Oakley & Co client engagement data and PDMA Best Practices Research 2023
The Engineering-First Trap
Technical teams excel at building solutions. Without proper market validation, they can spend millions developing products that customers don’t actually need or want. This engineering-first approach leads to:
- Massive R&D investment in unvalidated solutions
- Years spent perfecting features nobody asked for
- Market launch delays while competitors move ahead
- Demoralised teams when products fail to gain traction
The Cost of Late Validation
Many organisations wait until after development to validate their solutions. This leads to:
- Sunk costs causing reluctance to kill failed projects
- Lost market opportunities while resources are tied up
- Competitive disadvantage in fast-moving markets
- Reduced R&D budget for truly valuable innovations
The Chinese Competition Challenge
With aggressive competition from Chinese manufacturers, European technical organisations face:
- Shrinking windows to get innovation right
- Pressure to reduce development costs
- Need for faster time-to-market
- Risk of market position erosion
Trade Uncertainty and Market Volatility
In an environment of increasing trade tensions and potential tariffs, technical organisations face unprecedented VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity):
- Supply chain disruption threatening traditional development assumptions
- Market access uncertainty affecting product development decisions
- Increased pressure to localise development and production
- Need for faster validation to reduce exposure to trade policy and market shifts
This uncertainty makes it more critical than ever to validate market needs before committing millions to development. Organisations can’t afford to guess wrong about customer needs when external factors are already creating massive market complexity.
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