Learning From Business Failures

New product initiatives within large companies often fail to achieve their potential because they have too much rather than too little. They have too much: 1) Headcount You are now under pressure to come up with something for all these people to do. Especially in cultures where “engineers must always be coding” and a PM is seen as failing if engineers are even briefly “blocked on requirements.” 2) Democratic decision making Creative ideas get killed (or watered down) by groups — yet this is the default in most big companies, even those that claim to use RAPID or similar frameworks. 3) Optics requirements You must now manufacture metrics and milestones to show straight-line progress and demonstrate certainty — during what is, by its very nature, an uncertain journey. 4) Involvement of the “core” product group To appease the leaders of the company’s cash cow, you make compromises that weaken your product. These leaders have the most power within the company and some may even try to confuse the CEO or quietly sabotage your initiative. 5) Reliance on the company’s distribution Due to the mirage of distribution, you won’t be incentivized to deeply understand your customer like a real startup would. Your initial traction is misleading — you get a usage spike, but: (a) those users are scattered across segments, not your core segment (have you even identified that core segment?) (b) what’s given will be taken away — that homepage slot for your new product will disappear next quarter due to VP jealousy or shifting OKRs (with some hand-wavy “metrics neutral” excuse). So if you are leading a new initiative within a larger company and your CEO/CxO asks you what you need to succeed, do not default to the answer that everyone in this situation gives: “I need more resources”. Instead, consider asking for less — less reporting, less certainty, less consensus-driven decision making, less meddling, and less pressure to build out a “full team” & great operations early on. If your CEO is competent, they’ll respect it. (clearly, this entire post is only for the intrepid product leaders who want to make winning products, it is not for everyone 🙂)

Tanguy Crusson has spent 10+ years at Atlassian, where he's taken several products from zero to one, including HipChat, Statuspage, and most recently, Jira Product Discovery. In this episode, we dive deep into the struggles and lessons of innovating and building new products inside a large company. Tanguy shares candid stories about what's worked, what hasn't, and everything he's learned about successfully building 0 to 1. We cover: 🔸 Why large companies with so many advantages still fail at creating new products 🔸 How to avoid common pitfalls like competitive myopia and premature scaling 🔸 Lessons learned from acquisitions 🔸 Lessons from competing with Slack 🔸 Insights from the success of Jira Product Discovery 🔸 Tactics for protecting your “ugly babies” 🔸 The power of “lighthouse users” 🔸 The importance of having a “why now” 🔸 So much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gr9f4D45 - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gmiuz944 - Apple: https://lnkd.in/gWGAc5ZX Some key takeaways: 1. “Don’t eat your own bullshit.” When launching new products within companies that have already seen some success, it’s easy to assume that your existing playbooks will work again. But what got you here won’t take you there. You need to define, test, and validate your assumptions, because they may very well be wrong—especially when targeting new customer segments. 2. Startups benefit from starving. Starving creates hunger, which drives people to solve problems with resourcefulness and urgency. When exploring new products in a big company with excessive resources, you need to create scarcity to emulate this startup starvation. This generally means operating as a small, scrappy, siloed team. 3. The most likely outcome when launching a new product is failure—even at big companies that appear to have many advantages. It’s important to ground new product launches in this reality so that you can deter the company from over-investing, which ultimately serves to reduce hunger, slow things down, and decrease the chances of success. After all, why invest heavily in something that’s most likely to fail anyway? 4. Success for new products should be measured differently from existing ones, both in terms of metrics and time horizons. In general, new products should be judged by whether the team is answering the right questions at the right pace and whether the team is still excited about the new bet’s potential. It’s a common mistake to judge new products by metrics that a big company is used to, like MAUs or revenue. However, if a team is optimizing for MAUs or revenue before they’ve worked to understand the problem, they will be working on the wrong things. 5. Atlassian uses a four-phase approach to launching new products and deciding whether to invest in them further: Wonder, Explore, Make, Impact

We grew by 57,000% in 3 years. Then we made a colossal mistake. Quest Nutrition exploded out of the gate. The company was born on the back of a mindset, and we wanted our customers to know that too. So we launched Quest Apparel, a lifestyle brand around the relentless pursuit of maximizing your human potential. Why haven’t you heard of it? Because we shut it down. It failed. Hard. What Quest meant to me as a founder wasn’t what it meant to the consumer. And only the consumer matters. It suddenly became clear to me that Quest launching a clothing company was like Quaker Oats launching a clothing company. You may love Quaker Oats, but do you want to wear an upscale $120 henley made by them? No. Here’s how you can be wise and learn from my mistakes… 1st: Establish Your Brand’s Core Identity. We tried to establish an aggressive, edgy vibe without considering the brand identity we’d already created in the mind of our consumer. Quest Nutrition is about healthy, delicious food. It was fun, playful, and inviting. Launching a sister brand that was aggressive and cool was a total mismatch. 2nd: Understand Your Audience. The influencers that promoted our brand were in shape, but the people actually buying our products were trying to get in shape. So clothing tailored for people with the perfect physique didn’t work. If we had launched an athleisure brand aimed at flattering people trying to improve their physique, we might have had a shot. 3rd: Create Straight Lines. Whenever you’re doing something new, ask, what’s the straight line between the marketing and the product? If you can’t see the straight line between the high performing piece of content and the product you plan to sell, odds are you should stop immediately as there’s no alignment with your current audience. That doesn’t mean you’re dead in the water, but it does mean that: 4th: If You Want To Change Lanes, Pave The New Lane First. As I would learn once again when I launched a comic book, brand goodwill doesn’t automatically transfer to new products. Just because people like my interviews, doesn’t mean they even read comic books, let alone like MY comic books. If you want to go into a new area, develop the new straight line. Start creating content that will build the audience that will buy the thing. Don’t go to all of the trouble of building the thing without knowing if you can create content that will attract the right audience. Content is MUCH easier to experiment with than products. If you get strong results with the content, then build the product. If you stay true to your brand’s core, understand your audience, create straight lines, and always build the audience before you create the product, you’ll be able to evolve your business. But if you don’t do that, you’re going to burn a lot of money. Take it from someone who’s burned millions so you don’t have to.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝘅𝗶𝗰 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲? This post breaks down the 7 visible signs— and the root causes behind them. 𝗧𝗼𝘅𝗶𝗰 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀. It’s about the environment that good people quietly escape from. And sadly, many leaders don’t realize they’ve created it… until the team’s morale is gone and the best performers have left. 𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 👇 🚨 The 7 Warning Signs: What You See 1️⃣ Performers Quit Great people leave faster than they’re replaced. Not because of workload—but because of leadership fatigue. 2️⃣ Fear Culture People stop speaking up. Meetings go silent. Questions disappear. Everyone plays it safe. 3️⃣ Blame Shifting Instead of owning decisions, leaders deflect— towards the team, the market, or each other. 4️⃣ Closed Decisions Major changes happen behind closed doors. No input. No context. Just "This is how it is now." 5️⃣ Emotional Outbursts Leaders lash out, sulk, or react unpredictably. The team walks on eggshells, never sure what mood they’ll face. 6️⃣ Playing Favorites Recognition and opportunities feel uneven. Some are always “in the room.” Others are overlooked. 7️⃣ Silent Meetings No one contributes—not out of laziness, but fear, confusion, or lack of trust. 🧨 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟳 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝘁 1️⃣ Insecure Authority Micromanagement, dominance, and defensiveness are often signs of internal doubt—not strength. 2️⃣ Zero Accountability Leaders don’t get feedback. There are no consequences for toxic behavior. So it repeats. 3️⃣ Low Empathy The human side of the team is ignored. Feelings, needs, and energy levels aren’t even part of the equation. 4️⃣ Results Obsession All that matters is the number. People become tools. Burnout becomes normal. 5️⃣ Poor Mentorship Coaching and development are absent. Leaders don’t grow their team— because no one’s growing them. 6️⃣ Trust Deficit People don’t feel safe to disagree, stretch, or even fail. So they disengage. 7️⃣ Toxic Rewards Aggressive behavior gets rewarded as “decisive” or “bold.” The wrong model keeps getting promoted. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀. But they can be reversed—if a leader is willing to look in the mirror and change the way the team breathes. 📌 Save this 📌 Share with your leadership circle 📥 If you're leading a team and unsure whether you’re enabling growth—or toxicity... 𝗗𝗠 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲-𝗼𝗻-𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 OR 📘 𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗡𝗔 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲™—my step-by-step framework to help you build trust-based, growth-driven teams. 👉 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 #peakimpactmentorship #DNAofInfluence #leadership #success

The most dangerous phrase in a growing startup: 'And we also need to change...' The change fatigue cycle that kills momentum: → Month 1: 'We need to implement this new CRM' → Month 2: 'Actually, we also need to revamp our sales process' → Month 3: 'Plus we should restructure the team' → Month 4: 'And change our pricing model' → Month 5: Your team stops caring about any changes The data is clear: ↳ 74% of transformation failures are due to poor change management. What founders don't realize: Every change request withdraws from your team's psychological energy account. The signs your team has change fatigue: • Enthusiasm for new initiatives decreases • 'We tried that before' becomes a common response • Implementation gets slower despite simpler changes • Good people start looking for 'more stable' opportunities The sustainable change framework: • One major change at a time • Let people master something before adding more. • Change with purpose • Connect every change to a clear business outcome. • Change with support • Provide training, time, and psychological safety. • Change with celebration • Acknowledge both effort and results. The uncomfortable truth: Your appetite for change is higher than your team's capacity for change. Sustainable growth requires sustainable change. What change are you pushing that your team isn't ready for?

Expanding from a single product to a multi-product company. It's almost always a prerequisite to unicorn status. And yet, that transition often leads to failure. In the episode of #TheScienceOfScaling, we study this company evolution with the help of Ryan Meadows, Head of Global Sales at Klaviyo, Stage 2 Capital LP, and HubSpot alum. He joined Klaviyo 5 years ago when they were at around $60M in ARR. Today, they're north of $700M ARR. Expanding from a single to a multi-product company was a key foundation for this growth. Here is an approach commonly used in the ecosystem that leads to failure: (1) Company needs to grow from $20M to $50M this year to meet VC IRR expectations. (2) Bottoms-up revenue math of the current product-market-channel business tops out at $40M. Company needs to find an additional $10M in growth. (3) CEO presents plan to build new product. CEO commits to $10M in revenue from new product this year. (4) Product and engineering work nights and weekends to deliver the product in the next 4 months. In parallel, Marketing updates the website and collateral, Sales Enablement trains the entire Sales and CS team, and Finance revises the projections. (5) Fail. Not only does the business dramatically miss the $10M target for the new product, but it also misses the core business target because it has distracted all resources from the known business model. It's perplexing why entrepreneurs intuitively avoid committing to a revenue target on Day 0 of their startup. Instead, they meticulously execute a sequential journey of pursuing #ProductMarketFit and then #GoToMarketFit before transitioning into revenue growth mode, complementing this strategy with clear milestones that define the transitions between phases. However, executives forget this instinct when a business surpasses $10M in revenue. They get overly confident in their ability to define the product, messaging, and sales motion correctly right out of the gate. They don't and distract the entire organization from their predictable growth motion. Ryan and the team at Klaviyo followed a different path. They succeeded at the multi-product evolution by replicating the operating cadence of a pre-product startup within the walls of Klaviyo. In summary: (1) Specialize a small cross-functional product, engineering, sales, marketing, and CS team for the initiative. Select team members as you would for a pre-seed business. Refrain from distracting the core teams with the new product. Let the core team continue to exploit the predictable revenue growth of the current model. (2) Establish North Star metrics appropriate for the new product's maturity. Use metrics around customer success creation versus unit economics and revenue optimization. (3) Accelerate the pace of learning through daily cross-functional stand-ups, frequent analysis of customer discovery calls, and detailed customer adoption metrics. Listen to Ryan's full story here: https://lnk.to/TSOS!mr

You don’t have a tech problem. You have a trust problem. A behavior problem. A leadership problem. And no platform is going to fix that. If your transformation is stalling, it’s not the software. It’s the strategy behind it. Here are the 6 root causes behind failed transformations (and how to fix every single one): 1. No Executive Buy-In ↳ Why? If leaders aren’t visibly committed, no one else will be either. ↳ Solution: Tie the change to business outcomes. Make leaders walk the talk. 2. Tool-First Thinking ↳ Why? Buying tech without solving real problems leads to shelfware. ↳ Solution: Start with pain points. Solve real work, then layer in tools that scale it. 3. No Behavior Change ↳ Why? New systems won’t help if people go back to the old way. ↳ Solution: Make the change easy. Train, support, and co-create with teams on the ground. 4. Overcomplicated Rollouts ↳ Why? Big launches overwhelm people and create confusion. ↳ Solution: Pilot first. Prove value in one area, then expand with confidence. 5. No Clear Ownership ↳ Why? If everyone owns it, no one owns it. ↳ Solution: Assign transformation leaders with authority, not just a title. 6. Ignoring the Frontlines ↳ Why? Top-down change rarely works at the bottom. ↳ Solution: Build with the people doing the work. That’s where the real answers live. Tech doesn’t transform companies. People do. But only if you build something they believe in. ♻ Repost to stop someone from wasting millions on another failed rollout. 🔔 Follow Gabriel Millien for transformation strategies that actually work. 📌 Save this before your next kickoff call.

Why is it that so many organizations struggle with under performing leaders? It’s rarely due to a lack of talent or resources—so what gives? This question cuts to the core of how many businesses operate today. We hire smart people, promote high achievers, and invest in training—yet gaps in leadership persist. Some are small, but others are systemic. The truth? Too many leaders lack clarity on what leadership truly requires…and most organizations are ill-equipped to drive the behavioral change needed for better performance. Here are some key factors to consider: * Not all leaders are equally skilled. Obvious, yes—but many leaders have never been coached and default to leading as they were led. Whether autocratic, democratic, or somewhere in between, we don’t really know how someone will lead until they’re unleashed on their people. * Leaders who’ve never been coached are often resistant to feedback and unlikely to invest in growing others. If they’ve never experienced real professional development, they fall back on what they know—or worse, what they don’t know—reverting to old, comfortable habits. * Even well-developed leaders struggle in toxic or rigid environments. When the culture doesn’t support growth or coaching, self-protection becomes the default. Survival mode takes over, and leadership suffers, taking people down with it. * Short-term thinking dominates. The pressure to hit immediate targets leaves little time to invest in meaningful development. Leaders are expected to comply, execute, and keep pace—growth becomes optional, not essential. * Leadership success is mismeasured. Too many organizations define success only by financial metrics or engagement scores—ignoring the actual growth of their leaders. This reinforces the wrong behaviors and undercuts emotional intelligence, empathy, and accountability—the very traits that drive long-term performance. The leadership gap in your organization isn’t a mystery to be solved at a later date—it’s a call to act. Now. If you’re in a position to influence leadership development in your organization, start by asking the hard questions: 1) Are we coaching our leaders? 2) Are we measuring what really matters? 3) Are we building a culture that supports growth? What would you add to the list? I’d love to hear your perspective in the comments below. #leadership #coaching #fundamentals We can also succeed by embracing the immortal words of the great Zig Ziglar and being willing to learn.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀? E𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁?? It’s not about poor ideas. It’s not about lazy teams. It’s about 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚. Behind every “transformation” are overwhelmed leaders, tired teams, unclear priorities. And a lot of wishful thinking. Here are 10 challenges that quietly sabotage change efforts (even in the best-run companies): 1) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝘇𝘇𝘆. People can’t commit to what they don’t understand. → Clarity isn’t a luxury — it’s a leadership responsibility. 𝟮) 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗴. Most execs have to act before all the facts are in. → That’s not reckless — but without structured scenario planning, it becomes risky. 𝟯) 𝗪𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵, 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁. We overload teams already at capacity, hoping they’ll just “make it work.” → Sustainable change requires ruthless prioritization and realistic phasing. 𝟰) 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲. Change without active, visible leadership is change that quietly dies. → People follow behavior, not PowerPoints. 𝟱) 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆. You can’t support your team if you’re running on fumes. → Self-care isn’t soft — it’s strategic. 𝟲) 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗺𝘆. When everything’s urgent, nothing gets done well. → High-performing execs do less, better. 𝟳) 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸. One email or town hall won’t do it. → Communication is a process, not an announcement. 𝟴) 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗱. People don’t resist change. They resist 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙡. → Involve them early. Speak to their fears, not just your plans. 𝟵) 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴. Most orgs aren’t set up to 𝙙𝙤 change. They just expect it to happen. → Frameworks, training, tools. They’re not nice-to-haves. 𝟭𝟬) 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁. Change fizzles when it’s not embedded. → Celebrate progress. Reinforce behaviors. Institutionalize the shift. If you’re leading through change right now, here’s your reminder: ✔ You’re not alone. ✔ It’s not just you. ✔ This is the real work of transformation. 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 — 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝟭𝟬 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱? ----- 👋 I’m Lars – delivering transformation that sticks. 🔔 Follow me for more on 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 and 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. ✉️ DM 'READY' for insights.