The new space race: Big takeaways for software and product innovators – VentureBeat

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This post was written by Scott Castle, VP & general manager of products at Sisense

The new space race is grabbing headlines and driving public interest in the potential of space exploration. For tech innovators, it opens the doors to a world of possibilities. It has brought in a fast-moving, Silicon Valley- and product-led paradigm to a sector that was previously the governments domain. As a product leader with more than 25 years experience in software development and product management in both technology and analytics, I believe there are some big takeaways for product innovators and business leaders in this exciting technology milestone.

The advent of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic generated a highly entrepreneurial, private sector-led new space technology ecosystem, with startups offering services and applications that are highly innovative and customer-focused. Morgan Stanley, which predicts the global space industry will generate revenue upwards of $1 trillion in 2040, identifies this as a big investment opportunity for venture capital and private equity.

In Q2 of 2021, new space exploration received an infusion of $4.5B, setting it on track to beat 2020s total investment of $9.1B, reports Space Capital, a venture capital firm focused on the sector. The report estimates a total of $199.8B of equity investment across 1,533 companies in the new space ecosystem over the last decade. By factoring in the product innovations downstream that impact our daily life on Earth thanks to technology transfer, there is good reason for this optimism.

In many ways, the new space ecosystem and its constellation of space tech startups and unicorns ready to boldly go where no one has gone before follow three of the golden rules of product innovation that we strive toward:

SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic have ushered in radical and disruptive innovation into the aerospace and space technology sector. SpaceX was listed as the top disrupter on the CNBC Disruptor 50 List in 2018, upending both aerospace leader Boeing and the rocket industry with its reusable rockets, becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Product leaders might typically be inclined to go for incremental innovation because it appears sustainable. However, your product could miss the mark, lose product/market fit, and eventually, customers if you dont innovate quickly. During a crisis recovery period, this is of critical importance, reports McKinsey. Their recent survey of more than 200 executives revealed that over 85% think that the pandemic will have a lasting impact on customer needs over the next five years, but only 21% report they have the commitment and resources to face the challenge.

By following agile, data-informed methods, product leaders can test and iterate while keeping management informed with a high-level road map. By moving fast, with analytics at speed and reduced time to insights, product leaders can innovate to stay ahead of the competition.

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have said they want to lower barriers to mass adoption of space travel. Space X has stated its single vision of reducing the cost to launch. While these sound like lofty aims, they follow the right questions and have an impact on technological progress on the ground. Cost of launch is the crucial barrier to product innovation in space technology, and reusable rockets pave the way for new space pioneers to experiment, test, iterate, and launch products and technology more frequently.

Product leaders are equally focused on mass adoption of their products. A key reduction of cost to launch on that path is with the use of white-labeled embedded analytics. Think about how you can make it easier for your customers to interact with their data on your app. What if they could simply ask a question using plain language and have your app present analyzed insights in a user-friendly format? That is now an attainable differentiator and value proposition for customers to keep returning to your product.

Virgin Galactic leader Richard Branson and Blue Origin chief Jeff Bezos are bringing their famous customer and data obsession to a sector that traditionally focused on technology first, and the user experience next, with little incentive for change. New space startups and their backers, however, expect profitability from innovation, and have a laser-sharp focus on customer-centric innovation. For example, Virgin Galactics stated customer goal for its fully crewed test flight on July 11 was to assess everything from the seat comfort to the weightlessness experience, aiming to ensure the customer experience of the complete wonder and awe of space travel.

Product leaders are customer-obsessed but often rely on instinct rather than quantifiable data to drive their innovation decisions, missing opportunities to win customers. Bring that back into your court by using data derived from continuous testing so you can arrive at a solution that meets customer needs and ensures product stickiness.

For example, offering traditional reporting tools to your customers with static visualizations and dashboards simply dumps metrics onto your customers rather than providing actionable insights, leading to dissatisfaction and poor engagement. Instead serve contextual insights to your customers in a revolutionary way, by embedding them into your products to achieve a seamless and intuitive user experience. At Sisense, we call this infused analytics, and it empowers your customers with actionable insights where they spend the most time, in their communication apps or CRMs.

You can further enhance user experience with native app visual interfaces that help customers take action on their insights without jumping to and from workflows. By going beyond data delivery to make analytics an intuitive and integral part of decision making, product leaders can innovate to make a difference.

The new space race brings home Captain Picards famous line from Star Trek: The Next Generation. As a product leader, I am always excited to see innovations lead the way to more discoveries. Product innovation is arguably rocket science. Just as they did with the new space race, scientists must think big, ask the right questions, and constantly test. And product leaders must aim beyond the stars to create visionary products with long-lasting and universal impact.

Scott Castle is an analytics infusion pioneer bringing more than 25 years of software development and product management experience to his role as VP & GM of products at Sisense. Castle previously held technology positions at companies including Adobe, Electric Cloud, and FileNet.

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The new space race: Big takeaways for software and product innovators - VentureBeat