Blog post 21 Invent

INSIGHT 17 | LIMITS MATTER

You’ve worked in the cage, hemmed in by constraints.

Some self-imposed, others not.

Your product ticks every box you set, so it’s good to go… right?

Playtime in the arena of life isn’t for the faint-hearted. How ready are you?

in¹⁷  | Limits Matter

No mercy… Above and beyond

Development cycles, those dreaded loops, are like spinning plates. At some point at least one will fall, smash, sending shards that disrupt and distract your focus.

But why the fear of failure? Surely most would recognise that if you’ve never failed, you haven’t tried hard enough. Or from our friend Edison’s perspective “You never fail until you stop trying.”

Any Top Gear enthusiasts will testify to the sheer satisfaction of watching the dynamic trio destroying literally anything (there have been many great presenters but here we are referring to the legends that are Jeremy, Richard and James).

There have been many moments of wilful destruction to savour, but off roading with caravans was sublimely hilarious, an inspired idea brewed over a coffee no doubt. On the other hand, their infamous failed attempt to kill a Toyota Hilux was seemly borne out of the desire to debunk the manufacturers claim of unrivalled toughness. Despite some ingenious and concerted attempts all they did was enhance the reputation of what they coined as ‘the pluckiest truck alive’. Respect Toyota, you faced the challenge and reaped the reward.

Now this type of testing is clearly provocative, expressly for the audience’s amusement. Conversely every road trip they ever undertook was firmly to test their chosen second-hand cars to the absolute limit, yet their underlying intention wasn’t to destroy beyond repair only to nurse through to the finish line. Ultimately bonding with the car on many occasions with a genuine admiration for the durability of the engineering behind them.

Subjecting your own new product to such extreme testing is a must yet not necessarily instinctive. You’ve developed a bond and nursed it to life, paying attention to every single detail so it might seem brutal, unnecessary even, to literally try to kill it by any means possible. In doing so you will find its limits as well as its strengths; such knowledge is power and breeds unshakable confidence.

So go ahead, have some fun and show no mercy, after all once your product is in the hands of consumers it’ll be like play time in Toy Story.