Foundation Before Innovation

The insight: Phase 1 of most products isn't sexy. It's table stakes. It's basic functionality that needs to work before you can build the cool stuff. Teams want to skip to the exciting features. Don't.

Why this matters: Without solid foundation work, your innovation is built on quicksand. The AI features that seem exciting only work if you have the data foundation. The predictive capabilities only matter if the basics work reliably.

How to communicate this: Be honest that the work isn't sexy, but show how it enables everything else. "This is table stakes. It's not glamorous. But here's what it lets us do in Phase 2 and Phase 3..."

The discipline required: Saying no to exciting work until the foundation is solid. Watching competitors ship features you deliberately chose not to build yet. Enduring "is that all we're doing?" questions from stakeholders.

What success looks like: When the foundation is solid, the innovation is easy. When you skip the foundation, everything is hard.