Anthony W. Ulwick

Accelerate offerings in the pipeline and R&D When we helped Cordis discover opportunities in the angioplasty balloon market, one underserved outcome rose to the top of the list: “minimize the likelihood of restenosis”—that is, the recurrence of the blockage. Upon receiving this insight, my contacts at the company told me that the R&D team was working on a device, called a stent, which had the potential to address this unmet outcome.
Recognizing the size of the opportunity and the importance of being first to market, the R&D team put additional resources on the project and was the first to market with a product that generated $1 billion dollars in revenue over the next few years.


The stent had already been in the works, but it was just one of about 40 initiatives in total. It was only when the company gathered and prioritized its customers’ underserved desired outcomes that it realized that the stent deserved more funds and attention. Other initiatives were less lucky: those that did not speak to customers’ needs were defunded altogether.

Leveraging efforts that are all ready under way can save time and effort when creating products and services that will get the job done better.

Partner with or license from other firms

We have often worked with hardware manufacturers that discover many of the underserved outcomes remaining in the market cannot be addressed with a hardware solution: a
software or service offering is required. At that point, it makes sense to partner with or license from a firm that has expertise in that area.

Knowing precisely what needs are underserved makes choosing a partner easier. For example, we worked with an automobile manufacturer that discovered it did not have the capabilities it needed to address the underserved outcomes in a market of interest. With the list of prioritized underserved outcomes in hand, we evaluated over 100 possible partners.

The goal was to look at the potential partners and determine
how well they could address each of the underserved outcomes. Through this analysis, we found the three firms that held the most promise. The company interviewed management from the three firms and eventually picked an effective partner.

A prioritized list of underserved outcomes makes the perfect scorecard against which to evaluate firms that will help you get more of a job done and/or get the job done better.