Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal, Acquired
Kill the Product Before the Market Does
Abandon an obsolete assumption, cut deep if needed, and rebuild around the industry standard.
Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal says
Nvidia had designed their chip for a constraint that was no longer true by the time everyone else came out with their stuff. The company had about 9 months of runway left, and like anybody else, that meant pulling the plug was a real possibility. The only thing they could do was standardize on the same Microsoft direct 3D architecture as everyone else. They had to lay off 70% of the company, going down to about 35 people, and eventually shipped the Reva 128, which turned out to be a beast.
Try this
Identify one assumption behind your current product that no longer matches the market, and decide today whether to abandon it rather than keep iterating.