Strategy Research Blog

When “Good Enough” Isn’t Good Enough …

To Really Drive The Growth Your Business Is Craving

How would one develop a branding model using text data and deep learning methods?

We’re all moving faster and being pressured to further pick up that already-brisk pace. One result of this increasing speed in the business world is the tendency, even necessity to settle for “good enough.” If we can accomplish some portion of what we need by the deadline, that will be good enough. If we can go through some, but not all of the steps in our time-tested process, that’s good enough. If we can conduct research overnight, even if we’re not representing the whole consumer base, that’s good enough.

Or is it?

What are we trying to accomplish with all the rushing? More often than not, the goal is to beat the competition to market with a new innovation or to simply keep up with consumer demand for the new and exciting (fill in the blank).

I know a single blog post is unlikely to change this race-against-the-clock mentality that has been set in motion over the past few years, but what if it could? Let’s think about what we’re sacrificing by settling for “good enough.”

• Long-term success. We’re spending less time thinking about strategy and more time focusing on tasks, to-do lists, and near-term activity.
• Predictability. We’re abandoning proven processes by short-circuiting them, cutting important steps or trading them for unproven methodologies that will move faster, but may not produce the same results.
• Reliable data. We’re settling for “something” instead of rock-solid insights that look at the whole picture and will really drive change in a positive direction.
• Missed opportunities. In moving so fast, we’re probably leaving promising ideas and insights behind, or never even uncovering them.
• Maximum profits. By rushing to market without doing all the homework that would have been done 5 years ago, we’re almost certain to be leaving money on the table.

Without a doubt, there are ways to get things done quickly—I mean QUICKLY. You want to develop a new product in a matter of days? No problem. You want to get some consumer feedback in an hour? No problem.

But what do we really have in such a short time period? Maybe those new products have a chance to succeed. But maybe they could have been enhanced with more time to explore, investigate, plan, develop, test, improve, and then move into the roll-out phase. Maybe we can get some information from a few people who are, conveniently, available to answer questions within the next 60 minutes. But who are they? Who did we miss? What opinions weren’t considered? How much more informed would we be if we had taken the time to conduct some higher-quality research with an audience we can target and control more carefully? Maybe we can make a profit with lightening-speed decision-making. But how much more profit could we generate with more strategic planning, consideration, and execution?

Oftentimes, just a few more days or an added week or two in the schedule can really improve the quality of the output. So what’s it going to take to change this pattern of behavior? Can we even do that? Should we?

Just some food for thought on accepting “good enough” as being good enough.

Felicia Rogers

Executive Vice President

Felicia Rogers is a dynamic insights consultant who leverages decades of business and consumer research experience. During her career, she has partnered with companies across an array of categories. Felicia began her career in print advertising and has since spent most of her professional life in various consumer insights roles at Decision Analyst. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing, from the University of North Texas.

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