HouseValues’ Matt Heinz explains how to turn failures into learning experiences, and create a culture of innovation.

I make my share of mistakes. Not on purpose, but sometimes things don’t work the way I want. I conduct research, understand what my customers want, and then develop marketing strategies to put my products in front of them. Some of those marketing strategies don’t pan out, some messages don’t resonate, and others don’t generate the responses I wanted.

Not success. But it is forward progress.

I failed, but that’s OK as long as I learned something from the process.

I am fortunate to work at a company that encourages, if not requires, me to take risks and test a LOT of new ideas. HouseValues was the fastest-growing technology company in Washington and the ninth-fastest growing tech company in North America in 2004. That rate of growth, measured over a five-year period, doesn’t come by only doing things we already know how to do.

Growth comes from innovation and an acceleration of new ideas and creative thinking, across the company -- with our products, with our sales and customer service organizations, and especially in our marketing. To keep growing at a continued accelerated rate, we need to reinvent how we do business on a regular basis, and find new ways to delight our customers and get our message across.

That means taking risks; calculated, educated guesses about what’s going to work. 

We test a lot, and if we do that right, we are inevitably going to fail. More than once.

But failure isn’t all bad. Sure, it doesn’t represent immediate forward progress, but the end result of testing will almost always be new ideas and new strategies that otherwise would not have been discovered without an openness to taking risks.

So failure is OK, to a point.

The key to “successful failure,” then, is three-fold: 

1) Test new ideas quickly, with minimal infrastructure. Many companies don’t test often enough in part because they want the test to go perfectly, which requires lining up many different resources for a small test -- a task that can take far longer than the test may be worth. My advice? Shoe-horn it if you need to. Mitigate risk associated with fast-tracking a test, but test quickly to see if your overall concept or message has value. If the test is positive, you can expand and build the required infrastructure to support a broader roll-out. If your test doesn’t work, it’s a good thing you didn’t waste too many people’s time with infrastructural support.

2) Evaluate success or failure, and act quickly. Know whether your test was a success or failure as soon as possible. If it was a success, scale it quickly to confirm that the idea still works. If your test was a failure, stop doing it fast. Move on to the next idea.

3) Learn and move on. If your test was a failure, don’t dwell on it and don’t cry over spilt milk! Do a quick post-mortem, even if it’s just in a meeting of one, and evaluate what went wrong, why the test was a failure, and what you would have done differently. A retest with different variables is an option, or you might decide to go an entirely different direction. Either way, figure out what you need to know and move on.

Smart companies make frequent testing a part of their culture, and that also means having a culture that is OK with failure. But in this context, and given the three keys to “successful failure” outlined above, frequent testing and occasional failures will lead to more rapid innovation and growth. 

How can you create a culture of open and acceptable testing? 

• Keep a running list of new ideas. Conservative ideas, crazy ideas. Post them around the office to get your team thinking about even more ideas. Then think about what it would take to get those ideas tested as quickly as possible. Does it require a complete change to your product? Typically not. Could it be tested with a couple of well-placed phone calls to trusted customers who you know will give you honest feedback? Maybe. 
  
  
• Make sure your team knows that failure is OK. Don’t create or foster an environment that discourages or punishes employees for getting things wrong now and then.
  
  
• Reward your team for innovation. This applies to agencies as well. Is your entire in-house team, as well as any agencies you work with, thinking outside the box? Are they taking action on those out-of-the-box ideas? Maybe create a monthly award, or even some bonus money, for employees who have the courage to test something new and innovative.
  
  
• Dedicate time to testing. We’re all busy, typically over-booked with work for strategies we already know will be successful. Make sure you set aside time for brainstorming and testing. Make it a priority for yourself and your organization.

If your company is playing it safe, and relying on what either you or others have already done successfully, you’re likely not growing as fast as you could.

Take risks. Test often. But be accountable.

Matt Heinz is senior director of marketing for HouseValues, Inc. Heinz joined HouseValues in 2002 and is responsible for managing the company’s strategic marketing direction and brand development initiatives. Heinz has more than 10 years of consumer and business-to-business marketing experience with technology, real estate and retail products. Previously, he spent five years at Microsoft where he was responsible for driving marketing and business development efforts for MSN. While at Microsoft, Heinz built several successful customer acquisition and retention programs that are still used companywide today.

Before Microsoft, Heinz led a team of marketing professionals at Weber Shandwick, a global PR firm, working on accounts for several technology and real estate clients. Heinz has also held marketing positions with The Boeing Company, The Seattle Mariners and the Washington State Attorney General’s office. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington.