New product initiatives within already-successful companies often fail to achieve their potential because they have too much rather than too little.

Too much of:

1) headcount: you are now under pressure to come up _something_ for all these people to do

👇🏾

2) democratic decision making: creative product ideas usually get killed (or watered down) by groups of people

3) optics requirements: need to manufacture metrics & milestones to *show* straight-line progress and demonstrate certainty during an inherently uncertain journey

4) involvement of the “core” product group: you have to make tremendous compromises within your new product to keep the leaders of the company’s core product happy

5) reliance on the company’s distribution: you and your team don’t have the incentive to understand the customers of your new product well-enough, and your initial traction is often misleading

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 if you should be asking for less: less reporting, less certainty, less consensus-driven decision making, less meddling, and less pressure to build out a “full team” early on.

(clearly, this is only for the really intrepid product leaders, not for everyone 🙂)