General Motors and Segway have teamed up to do a new product launch. The new product is described at Freep.com in "GM, Partner to unveil 2-seater" and is called the EN-V. And there's almost no hope it will succeed. Too bad, because both companies desperately need a winner. But the process they used to develop and launch this product was all wrong – and it would be a miracle if the arrow hits a bulls-eye.
Segway is the long-running story of a company with what looks like a great idea, but it never takes off. The original Segway seemed really neat. But people struggled to figure out why they would buy one. There is walking, there are bicycles, there are motorcycles and there are cars. Segway never defined who was under-served, or unserved, and therefore had a real need to use their new product. Segway management did a great job of public relations, because we all saw them on TV, in the news, and learned the name. But the product was developed internally, not in response to a market need. As a result, sales never materialized and Segway slipped into the business history file as another case study.
General Motors has no new product development process to create products for the future. For decades GM has attempted to defend and extend its 1940's approach of designing updated products, and hoping people will keep buying. It's been many years since GM launched a new product that people said "wow, that's just what I needed – and I wasn't even aware I needed that."
Now the two companies have teamed up to launch a 2 passenger Segway. They have identified the use they think this fits, and they think they know a target. But the problem is that this is just another "idea" designed and built without significant market input. Instead of developing a scenario of the future with deep insight to what people will want, and then making that product, they have said "wouldn't this be neat – and can't we imagine who might buy?" Interesting lab work, but unless they are very, very lucky the odds are greatest that people will think it's cute, but won't buy. After all, with the plethora of current solutions across a huge price range from many competitors means nobody is living without transportation. Why should potential customers inherently think this is a good idea.
Phoenix companies don't design products from inside the company outward. Instead, they use market input to discover the unmet needs, and they fulfill them. Especially when it's clear that competitors aren't jumping in to fulfill the need. They intend to Disrupt the marketplace not by some splashy introduction and hoping people will switch, but rather by identifying the under-served customers and giving them a solution they didn't have. Then the company learns, adapts and keeps pushing toward an ideal product that meets ever more needs. From this initial small success the market grows.
Segway never understood this. They don't define unmet needs, nor competitor inabilities – and thus they have great ideas but they fail to Disrupt the marketplace and their innovations have gone nowhere. GM works hard to avoid innovations that might be market disruptions, instead offering sustaining innovations hoping to defend their old business model.
This new type of vehicle might have a chance of success. But the only hope is for both companies to ignore the PR. They should set up a White Space team, and give that team a year to really understand the unmet needs in the marketplace. Then go back to the original design and make it very explicitly meaningful to people who have unmet needs. Launch small, make money, learn and grow.
But given the approach this dynamic duo is taking, only luck will keep this from being another missed opportunity for both struggling companies.
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