The Secret to True Speed To Market

Speed to market is often seen as the holy grail of product development. Companies put immense pressure on their teams to deliver initiatives quickly, believing it will secure a significant competitive advantage. In reality, success depends less on being fastest and more on market responsiveness, the true secret to maintaining speed to market.

The true driver of rapid market entry is not just moving from idea to shelf, but the ability to respond quickly to market changes with relevant products. Many organisations misinterpret speed to market, focusing narrowly on development timelines rather than on their capacity for swift, relevant market response. In my experience, there are 3 capabilities that differentiate some of the most responsive companies from those who struggle.

In every company, decision-making can determine failure or success. The most responsive firms excel not only at making quality decisions, but also at making them quickly. They respect the cost of indecision.

These companies know that waiting for decisions can mean lost opportunities. They also realise that spending resources on data for decisions can exceed the value of simply acting, even if the choice is suboptimal.

Symptoms of indecisiveness include long waits for decisions, “option farming,” where too many resources go to unlikely possibilities, and complex hierarchies that escalate even small choices. This difference can cause big delays to market, often without the company realising it.

Not all elements within a finished product are equal. Some are hard, with long lead times, but change little with market shifts. Others are soft, which can be finalised late and sensitive to trends. Some fall in between.

Human nature often creates a pipeline where everything is managed by a set launch window. More responsive organisations treat these elements with more flexibility. They develop hard elements, independent of fixed timelines, to meet strategic needs and make choices that allow soft elements to be finalise late, creating the sense of high speed to market.

An example of this approach from the beauty industry is the development of a new formula chassis, where the focus is on disruptive performance vs a specific launch window.

At the same time, wide spectrum qualification plans are used, allowing for a large colour gambit, enabling late-stage shade locking, giving them the ability to respond to the latest trends when a suitable launch window is aligned. This allows for the development of more disruptive technologies whilst ensuring their colour palettes are in fashion.