INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: better ideas do not always lose because they are weaker

Marketing expert Rory Sutherland tells a brilliant story about British Airways struggling to fill a flight from London City to New York that was better in almost every practical way. Smaller airport, faster check-in, faster boarding, easier customs. A better overall experience. And still, people were slow to choose it.

The reason was that the people booking the flights were often assistants and travel agents. Book the standard Heathrow flight and if something goes wrong, nobody blames you. Book the unusual option and if something goes wrong, it is your fault.

That logic shows up in product development all the time. A safe concept that underperforms gets written off as unfortunate. A bold concept that underperforms is treated like bad judgment.

That is why weak ideas survive so often. Not because they are better, but because they are easier to defend.

If you want stronger work to make it through an organization, it is not enough to make it good. You also have to make it feel safe enough to back.