Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making

by Tony Fadell

Evolution Versus Disruption Versus Execution Evolution: A small, incremental step to make something better. Disruption: A fork on the evolutionary tree—something fundamentally new that changes the status quo, usually by taking a novel or revolutionary approach to an old problem. Execution: Actually doing what you’ve promised to do and doing it well. Your version one (V1) product should be disruptive, not evolutionary. But disruption alone will not guarantee success—you can’t ignore the fundamentals of execution because you think all you need is a brilliant disruption. And even if you do execute your idea well, it may not be enough. If you’re revolutionizing a major, dug-in industry, you may also need to disrupt marketing or channel or manufacturing or logistics or the business model or something else that never occurred to you. Assuming V1 was at least a critical success, the second version of your product is typically an evolution of your first. Refine what you made in V1 using data and insights from actual customers and double down on your original disruption. The execution should step up a notch—now you know what you’re doing and should be able to provide a significantly more functional product. You can continue evolving that product for a while, but always seek out new ways to disrupt yourself. You can’t only start thinking about it when the competition threatens to catch up or your business begins to stagnate.