Most innovative products don’t fail because they’re bad. They fail because they’re misunderstood.
Touring the tech shows over the past few years, I’ve heard pitches for everything from the healing powers of garlic to space laboratories. And it’s always a letdown to find out, months later, that something didn’t quite take off.
Not because the ideas weren’t brilliant. Not because the tech didn’t work. And certainly not because the people behind them weren’t smart.
They just weren’t communicated effectively.
Too technical. Too confusing. Too… “wait, what exactly does this do again?”
But that’s the reality: no matter how groundbreaking a product is, if the right people don’t get it when they need to, it might as well not exist. Whether it’s a buyer, investor, or potential partner, if they can’t quickly grasp how something works, why it matters, and how it benefits them, they lose interest. And who can really blame them in today’s hectic world?
Easy to understand, easy to buy into
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen a genuinely valuable product drown in its own cleverness. A sea of acronyms and diagrams that look like escape room puzzles. Decks that spend 20 slides on features but don’t make me feel anything.
It’s not about dumbing down. It’s about getting to the point and keeping your audience engaged by making the important stuff clear from the start.
- Tell a story that makes people care.
- Show the value, quickly and clearly.
- Make it tangible with real-world impact.
- Save the details for when they’re genuinely interested
If you’re trying to get buy-in for a complex product, ask yourself: ‘Could someone explain this in a sentence to their boss without stumbling or looking like an idiot?’
If not, there’s work to do.
Because if your product is misunderstood, it doesn’t matter how good it is.
The value gets lost. People move on. Everyone loses.