Last week, we talked about thinking creatively to preempt failure. In this installment of "Sensible Strategy", we examine how failure can be snatched from the jaws of success by being too focused on the ends and not being mindful of the means. I have discovered three simple tests that can help stop bad ideas or broken processes dead in their tracks. This is the second of them.

Test 2 - Synthesize the Approach
Once a decision to take action has been made, place it within a rollout framework, a "getting it done" work plan. Careful thought and attention to how the task is carried out and how this track of work relates to other activities in the broader project can make the difference between victory or defeat, success or failure. Even good ideas can fall apart here if they are not placed within a strategic context and carried out to complement the work that the rest of the organization is doing.

Case Study: Google Buzz

One of the most spectacular cases of recent epic failure is the much-maligned launch of Google Buzz. Back in February, Google acknowledged the magnitude of its catastrophe, but despite the fact that it was a late arrival to the social networking scene, the idea of Buzz (even though many couldn't quite figure it out) was actually a good one. Like the search innovator's other tech creation, Google Wave, Buzz featured some interesting twists on a familiar formula. But because Google had not considered how the rollout of Buzz might impact how people use its Gmail and Google Talk services, a significant communication (and later, technical) disconnect emerged. And so, no one used Buzz: pretty much everyone turned it off because they considered it noise and opted out because there wasn't anything revolutionary or game-changing about it. It's become little more than a tinkering toy these days, and like Wave - which only ever just showed promise, never caught on, and became failed and cancelled - Buzz has become sort of an expendable working laboratory for social networking features that might be used in a future Google Social Network.

Failure is nothing new for cutting-edge companies like Google and Apple, and what keeps them successful is their willingness to learn from mistakes and continue innovating. A misunderstanding of Google's own demographic derailed the launch of Buzz and even the government of Canada weighed in with opinions about the subsequent privacy issues. By rolling out a good idea that was not yet ready to see the light of day because it needed more time to cook, Google's shortcomings with Buzz were glaringly apparent when compared side-by-side with its own successful Gmail and Talk. By comparison, both Gmail and Talk were launched incrementally to staged audiences with cautious perspective on how these tools would mesh with the rest of the Google platform. Careful consideration of how Buzz might fit in with the suite of products and services Google offered would have revealed early on in development that the tool needed much more thought into how it could integrate and perform.