The innovation process has many faces, the one becoming increasingly accepted is that of constant, small scale experiments to see what works in the market, and what can be learned to improve the next iteration.
Sometimes when you experiment, something completely unanticipated comes up.
In the 80’s pharmaceutical giant Pfizer was conducting clinical trails on a drug they had called Sildenafil, which was designed to address the chest pain associated with angina.
It was only marginally successful, and never went to market, but during the trials, a curious, and completely unanticipated side effect became obvious, and Viagra was born.
