How Do You Go to Market When the Market Keeps Changing?

Incremental innovation—making minor, steady improvements to existing products—thrived because it was low risk, easy to justify, and provided a clear return on investment. However, the forces that once made it a safe and profitable strategy are now working against it. Consumers are upgrading less frequently. AI is upending entire industries overnight. Supply chains remain fragile. The market is shifting faster than most companies can keep up with. As Clayton Christensen posited, businesses that once dictated the pace of innovation are being disrupted by those willing to rethink entire categories.

Moving Beyond Incrementalism

The alternative to incrementalism isn’t reckless moonshot innovation. It’s not about making wild bets on unproven technology or chasing trends. Instead, it’s about shifting from short-term iteration to a more strategic, experience-driven approach that balances insight, foresight, and execution—because people expect more. According to Salesforce, 80% of customers consider a company's experience as important as its products and services. In this landscape, differentiation doesn’t come from simply adding features—it comes from designing holistic, integrated experiences that create real value for people.

For strategic leaders at large enterprises focused on shaping the future of their business, there is a clear path to radical innovation—one that builds on their unique strengths and competitive  advantages. We've developed an innovation and strategy practice to help these leaders move seamlessly from vision to market by creating end-to-end experiences, developing bold new concepts, and ensuring all touchpoints along the customer journey are compelling and cohesive.

[Sidebar Example: When a global vision care company needed to anticipate the future of eye health, they partnered with us to reimagine how people interact with their vision. Instead of focusing on minor product enhancements, we worked with them to design a holistic ecosystem that integrated digital health tracking, telehealth services, and personalized product experiences. Through research and participatory design, we helped them uncover new opportunities that positioned them to lead rather than react.]

Companies that successfully move beyond incrementalism do so by taking a more holistic approach to innovation—one that views physical products, digital experiences, and brand interactions not as separate initiatives, but as interconnected parts of a larger system.

Embracing Experience Innovation

Shifting to experience innovation doesn’t mean abandoning structured development processes. It means replacing a feature-first mindset with an experience-first one, ensuring that every new product or service aligns with how consumers engage with it. At Whipsaw, we achieve this by:

1. Identifying Emerging Opportunities
   We leverage research through design to anticipate where markets and behaviors are headed. By combining strategic foresight, participatory co-creation, and qualitative research, we surface emerging needs before they become apparent. Engaging real users early and often allows us to shape insights into meaningful, experience-driven innovations.
2. Validating Through Iteration
   Innovation isn’t about taking blind risks—it’s about learning early and creating quickly. We work closely with clients to test and refine concepts early in the process, ensuring actual feasibility, viability, and desirability before scaling and helping clients move forward confidently.
3. Integrating Physical, Digital, and Brand Experiences
   We approach innovation holistically. Instead of treating hardware, software, and branding as separate silos, we design systems where each element enhances the others—ensuring that companies deliver not just better products, but unified experiences that drive long-term engagement.

Experience innovation doesn’t just improve outcomes—it de-risks the innovation process. A McKinsey study found that companies prioritizing this approach outperform their peers by 30% in revenue growth and are twice as likely to lead in market share. By designing and validating more holistically, businesses that invest in experience innovation avoid the common pitfalls of iterative development: launching products consumers don’t need, reacting too slowly to market shifts, or failing to differentiate in an increasingly crowded landscape.

The companies that will lead the next decade aren’t the ones that iterate the fastest. They’re the ones that identify the right opportunities and create the right experiences that drive meaningful customer engagement and retention.

The Cost of Standing Still

The old playbook of incremental updates is quickly losing its effectiveness. Consumers expect more than surface-level improvements, and competitors that embrace experience innovation are already shaping what comes next.

History is full of cautionary tales of companies that waited too long to evolve, believing that small, predictable improvements would be enough to sustain them. The companies that succeed will be those that recognize the shift and take action. By investing in experience innovation, they won’t just keep up with trends—they’ll define what comes next.

The question isn’t whether change is coming. The question is: Will you shape it or wait for someone else to?