Why Good Ideas Often Don’t Make It
In large enterprises, ideas are rarely the problem. Strategic initiatives, innovation pilots, and proposals for transformation are always in motion. Some focus on incremental gains, others aim for more ambitious change. Amid this constant churn, a few ideas begin to stand out. They show potential to reshape operations, address long-standing inefficiencies, or unlock new sources of value.
At this early stage, momentum builds. There is curiosity, cautious optimism, and just enough clarity to move from thinking to testing. This is where transformation begins to take real shape. Not yet a full commitment, but a deliberate step forward to explore what could be possible.
The First Target: Reaching MVP
Once an opportunity starts to crystallize, the first concrete milestone emerges: the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This is the early working version of the idea, built to test key assumptions with minimal investment. The purpose is not perfection, but validation. Can the solution withstand real-world use? Does it solve the problem it set out to address? Are there early signals from users or stakeholders that confirm the concept’s viability?
This is often a high-energy phase. Teams are aligned, delivery is fast, and the scope is tightly controlled. Architecture is intentionally lightweight, feedback loops are short, and expectations are well-managed. Getting to MVP is a significant achievement. It turns a concept into something tangible, creating early evidence that the idea is worth pursuing.
The Steep Climb: From MVP to Deployment
After reaching MVP, many organizations feel a sense of progress and rightly so. But from that point forward, the work gets significantly harder. The next major milestone is deployment, and the path to get there is rarely straightforward.
At this stage, speed gives way to scale. Code that was acceptable during MVP needs to be hardened for production. Security, compliance, integration, and reliability take center stage. The architecture may need to be rebuilt or extended. Performance must be tested. Risk needs to be managed.
Ownership also expands. What began as an isolated innovation effort must now be embraced by enterprise IT, operations, security, and support teams. Questions around long-term sustainability, service-level agreements, incident response, and monitoring all become part of the equation. It is no longer just about proving the idea it is about making it work across the organization, at scale, and with full accountability.
The Valley of Abandonment: Where POCs Go to Die
Between MVP and deployment lies a zone that few talk about openly. This is where many promising initiatives stall or get quietly shelved. The idea was sound. The MVP was successful. But moving to production proved too complex, too slow, or too misaligned with the broader enterprise.
This is not just a technical problem. Misaligned teams, unclear funding models, shifting priorities, and a lack of shared ownership all contribute. An MVP might have been built in a lab or by an agile pod, but deployment requires a different mindset one built on governance, cross-functional coordination, and risk management.
The reality is that many organizations have far more MVPs than they have deployed solutions. This valley between proof and production is where that gap becomes visible. It is where innovation momentum fades, not because of a lack of intent, but because of a lack of readiness to scale.
This is where leadership shifts from sponsor to enabler. The success of innovation no longer depends on the idea itself, but on the organization's ability to operationalize it. Moving from MVP to deployment requires more than momentum, it demands structure, alignment, and sustained commitment.
Real transformation isn’t powered by inspiration alone. It’s powered by follow-through.
Check our The Challenges Enterprise Face - Part 2