5 Mistakes That Can Doom a New Product

5 Mistakes That Can Doom a New Product
Category: Interviews
Published: March 1, 2020
Updated: October 13, 2026
Views: 249923
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New products often fail because they solve weak problems, add too many features or skip customer validation. Stephen Golden explains five common mistakes.

Sometimes an innovator or new company has an idea for a product that seems to have blockbuster potential -- only to fizzle and flop.  Why does this happen? In this interview with EIX's Kim Eddleston, Northeastern University Professor Stephen L. Golden discusses five mistakes that innovators and companies make that can doom a new product: not fixing a genuine need, solving a low-value problem, adding too many features, forgetting to validate the prototype with potential customers and "falling in love with the baby."

 


Kimberly Eddleston
Kimberly Eddleston
Schulze Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship / D'Amore-McKim School of Business / Northeastern University
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Cite this Article
DOI: 10.32617/473-5e5bb89711918
Eddleston, Kimberly. "5 Mistakes That Can Doom a New Product." FamilyBusiness.org. 1 Mar. 2020. Web 13 Oct. 2026 <https://eiexchange.com/content/5-mistakes-that-can-doom-a-new-product>.
Eddleston, K. (2020, March 1). 5 mistakes that can doom a new product. FamilyBusiness.org. Retrieved October 13, 2026, from https://eiexchange.com/content/5-mistakes-that-can-doom-a-new-product