Why Great Ideas Fail

I ran a session at FOO camp ’11 on Why Great Ideas Fail. It was chaotic, but my goal of leaving the room with a list of reasons was achieved – and here it is.

The crowd was tech and start-up heavy, so the list is shifted towards those pursuits. But this could be the start of a book project that more broadly explores the history of great ideas. Starting with fleshing out these categories better, and then finding good stories that illustrate ideas that failed for these reasons, as well as ideas that successfully overcame these challenges.

Meta-comment: Fascinating how many of these are opposite pairs of each other (e.g. gave up too soon, stayed with same idea for too long).

Follow up: If you were there, or not, and want to be updated if this project gets off the ground, leave a comment.

Why Great Ideas Fail:

Killed idea too soon
Stayed with idea for too long
Death (of person with the idea)
Not knowing target audience
Not Willing to experiment to find audience
Unwilling to change direction
Willful ignorance of economics
Overcoming organizational inertia
Not understanding the ecosystem the idea lives in
Inability to learn from microfailure
Fighting the last war
Giving up
Chindogu – solution causes more problems than it solves.
Randomness
Blamed marketing
Failed to pitch or communicate well
Not taking the idea far enough
Underestimating cultural limits
Underestimating dependencies
Balancing how world is vs. how world can be
Balancing Wants vs needs

Thanks to Val Aurora, I also got a list from attendees of personal reasons great ideas failed. Wide range of levels of specificity, but still interesting,

Specific failures people listed as their own:

Forcing something on people they don’t want
Not controlling distribution (e.g. Tivo vs. Comcast DVR)
Not doing post-mortems
Built an Airbnb before Airbnb, but didn’t see it through
Not eating our own dogfood
Building something ‘powerful’ but too complicate for the average user
Voice version of twitter circa 2005
Force change earlier. It won’t happen on its own.
Launching a product before it’s ready – unreliable performance
Not killing a project/startup faster (i.e. spinning wheels for an extra year instead of getting it out the door)
Trusting before researching
Not trusting my gut
Not considering political capital within a large organization
Trusting my gut too much
Juggling between being your greatest supporter and your greatest critic

Thanks to @jessykate for the photo of the whiteboard, from which these notes were transcribed.

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21 Comments » | Posted Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 at 3:48 pm in creative thinking, history, Innovation, Management

21 thoughts on “Why Great Ideas Fail”

Mel Lawrenz - February 20, 2012 at 8:51 pm #

Some great ideas fail because there is nothing great in them. One of the worst things we can do is just copy cat other people’s ideas, especially if we don’t give others credit for them.

Chris Duke - July 14, 2011 at 8:54 am #

You might consider separating ‘ideas’ from ‘businesses’. There are plenty of great ideas – but they might not be viable, sustainable revenue producing businesses. Maybe the question should be, “What stops an idea from becoming a business?” Sounds like a great event – keep me posted if this goes anywhere.

Gaston Bilder - July 14, 2011 at 7:18 am #

Great list. Interested in follow up and also support Marcelo-s comment.

If it was such a great idea, why didn-t it take off despite all the caveats that you have listed? Isnt reality/implementation the ultimate check regarding whether it truly was a great idea?

@gastonbilder

Mike Nitabach - June 24, 2011 at 7:51 am #

Here’s one to add:

Objective reality doesn’t give a fuck about you and your goals.

Scott Berkun - June 21, 2011 at 9:59 pm #

Thought of a good one tonight: There was an even better idea you were competing against.

Fermin Whittaker - June 18, 2011 at 11:38 pm #

Great suggestions.

Amro Rashad - June 17, 2011 at 10:28 pm #

I’d add…Not engaging with your audience and adjusting your idea with that insight.

Nandan Setlur - June 17, 2011 at 10:24 pm #

I am not sure geography was covered here. A great idea followed by all the elements that help convert the idea to a successful launch may not work in a different country.

Reasons are many including but not limited to the political climate, powerful business that don’t tolerate intrusion in their space, ambiguous regulations that always tend to favor the rich, etc

Kathy Sierra - June 15, 2011 at 8:01 pm #

I second Marcelo (and I think we’ve had this discussion before)… how can we say it was a “great” idea if it failed?

I can see the label “great” for ideas that someone else later DID go on to find success with, but I, too, believe that it’s not always useful to decouple idea from execution.

I guess I would not define an idea as “great” if it wasn’t coupled to how people will be willing and able to use it. I CAN see lots of space for great-except-for-X, where X could be, say, “too soon” or “based on Y, and Y imploded”, etc.

Nice list. Still wish I’d gone to that session.

Manny @ BestParking - June 15, 2011 at 5:38 pm #

I agree with @Christy that the personal reasons for failure are all too human, i.e., subjective and rarely blames oneself. A lot of ideas here needing more details. In a book, perhaps, Scott?

jer - June 15, 2011 at 11:46 am #

yes please @ Follow up: If you were there, or not, and want to be updated if this project gets off the ground, leave a comment.

christy - June 15, 2011 at 6:14 am #

Interesting difference I observe between the generalized group one and specific/personal group two …

Group one can include one’s own blindness/failings as the reason – eg. didn’t pitch well enough

Group two typically blames everyone but the self eg. not controlling distribution.

This isn’t 100% accurate, but it is very human. When we can talk in generalities it seems easier to allow ourselves to be at fault. If we are asked why our specific and personal project failed, it is very hard to own up to our role in the failure.

Interesting project. I look forward to hearing more.

LOL man - June 15, 2011 at 4:25 am #

yeah, same to me :(

Ramanand - June 14, 2011 at 11:56 pm #

Great list. I tried to group these (35 by my count) up by concepts (subjective tagging) and got these:

Attitude: 8
Audience: 1
C’est La Vie: 1 (the Randomness one)
Execution: 9
Learning: 2
Organization & Culture: 5
Person Dependence: 1
Quality of Idea: 4
Timing: 4

Drew @ Willpower Is For Fat People - June 14, 2011 at 5:46 pm #

“There are trivial truths and great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.” — Niels Bohr

Marcelo Calbucci - June 14, 2011 at 3:59 pm #

Two comments…

1) What gives an idea the label of “great”?

2) If it failed, wasn’t it likely that it wasn’t a great idea to begin with? In other words, shouldn’t we reserve the “great idea” for the “great idea + great plan + great execution” bucket? I’m not sure I want to separate the idea from the execution because ideas evolve with the execution itself.

Great stuff anyway.

Pingback: Solutions in search of problems: A canary in the startup coalmine | bitstrategist :: thoughts about 1s and 0s

Mel Lawrenz - February 20, 2012 at 8:51 pm #
Some great ideas fail because there is nothing great in them. One of the worst things we can do is just copy cat other people’s ideas, especially if we don’t give others credit for them.

Pingback: Great ideas aren’t enough | bitstrategist :: thoughts about 1s and 0s

Chris Duke - July 14, 2011 at 8:54 am #
You might consider separating ‘ideas’ from ‘businesses’. There are plenty of great ideas – but they might not be viable, sustainable revenue producing businesses. Maybe the question should be, “What stops an idea from becoming a business?” Sounds like a great event – keep me posted if this goes anywhere.

Gaston Bilder - July 14, 2011 at 7:18 am #
Great list. Interested in follow up and also support Marcelo-s comment.

If it was such a great idea, why didn-t it take off despite all the caveats that you have listed? Isnt reality/implementation the ultimate check regarding whether it truly was a great idea?

@gastonbilder

Pingback: Weekly bits of interest – 27 June 2011 | Innovation Blog

Mike Nitabach - June 24, 2011 at 7:51 am #
Here’s one to add:

Objective reality doesn’t give a fuck about you and your goals.

Scott Berkun - June 21, 2011 at 9:59 pm #
Thought of a good one tonight: There was an even better idea you were competing against.

Pingback: Why great Ideas Fail

Fermin Whittaker - June 18, 2011 at 11:38 pm #
Great suggestions.

Amro Rashad - June 17, 2011 at 10:28 pm #
I’d add…Not engaging with your audience and adjusting your idea with that insight.

Nandan Setlur - June 17, 2011 at 10:24 pm #
I am not sure geography was covered here. A great idea followed by all the elements that help convert the idea to a successful launch may not work in a different country.

Reasons are many including but not limited to the political climate, powerful business that don’t tolerate intrusion in their space, ambiguous regulations that always tend to favor the rich, etc

Pingback: Why great ideas fail » Imagin8 Social Marketing | Sycamore, Illinois

Kathy Sierra - June 15, 2011 at 8:01 pm #
I second Marcelo (and I think we’ve had this discussion before)… how can we say it was a “great” idea if it failed?

I can see the label “great” for ideas that someone else later DID go on to find success with, but I, too, believe that it’s not always useful to decouple idea from execution.

I guess I would not define an idea as “great” if it wasn’t coupled to how people will be willing and able to use it. I CAN see lots of space for great-except-for-X, where X could be, say, “too soon” or “based on Y, and Y imploded”, etc.

Nice list. Still wish I’d gone to that session.

Manny @ BestParking - June 15, 2011 at 5:38 pm #
I agree with @Christy that the personal reasons for failure are all too human, i.e., subjective and rarely blames oneself. A lot of ideas here needing more details. In a book, perhaps, Scott?

jer - June 15, 2011 at 11:46 am #
yes please @ Follow up: If you were there, or not, and want to be updated if this project gets off the ground, leave a comment.

christy - June 15, 2011 at 6:14 am #
Interesting difference I observe between the generalized group one and specific/personal group two …

Group one can include one’s own blindness/failings as the reason – eg. didn’t pitch well enough

Group two typically blames everyone but the self eg. not controlling distribution.

This isn’t 100% accurate, but it is very human. When we can talk in generalities it seems easier to allow ourselves to be at fault. If we are asked why our specific and personal project failed, it is very hard to own up to our role in the failure.

Interesting project. I look forward to hearing more.

LOL man - June 15, 2011 at 4:25 am #
yeah, same to me :(

Ramanand - June 14, 2011 at 11:56 pm #
Great list. I tried to group these (35 by my count) up by concepts (subjective tagging) and got these:

Attitude: 8
Audience: 1
C’est La Vie: 1 (the Randomness one)
Execution: 9
Learning: 2
Organization & Culture: 5
Person Dependence: 1
Quality of Idea: 4
Timing: 4

Drew @ Willpower Is For Fat People - June 14, 2011 at 5:46 pm #
“There are trivial truths and great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.” — Niels Bohr

Marcelo Calbucci - June 14, 2011 at 3:59 pm #
Two comments…

1) What gives an idea the label of “great”?

2) If it failed, wasn’t it likely that it wasn’t a great idea to begin with? In other words, shouldn’t we reserve the “great idea” for the “great idea + great plan + great execution” bucket? I’m not sure I want to separate the idea from the execution because ideas evolve with the execution itself.

Great stuff anyway.