How many new products are in your portfolio? And how many new reasons for the customer to choose you?
In your new product meeting, the number of products may be growing. But are the customer’s reasons for choosing you growing too? A new size, a new flavor, new packaging, a new pack… Each of them can create commercial value. Yet a full launch calendar does not, on its own, show that you are gaining more space in the customer’s life. Sometimes, as the portfolio grows, we keep circling around the same need.
The question I suggest asking here is this: In which situation, where the customer does not use us today, could they find us useful? This question shifts attention from the product’s features to the moment the customer is living through. What do they want to do at that moment? What do they find difficult? What constraint do they run into? A new reason to use begins with a concrete answer to these questions.
New consumption moments
The Western Europe innovation awards that NIQ announced on 21 October 2026 include examples that are thought-provoking in this respect. The winners include Kinder Bueno Ice Cream cones. NIQ describes one of the approaches it sees in the selected products as taking well-known brands into new consumption moments. This offers an example of existing brand equity becoming meaningful in another context. But the award list is a selection of successful products; because it does not show those that tried the same route and failed, it cannot be taken on its own as a formula for success. [1]
There is similar ground for reflection in Nestlé’s results announcement of 22 October 2026. The company links the momentum in cold coffee in the Asia, Oceania and Africa region to ready-to-drink products, liquid concentrates and soluble iced coffee options. [2] This statement is the company’s assessment of the contribution formats make to growth. The management question I draw from it is this: How can the same core value be adapted to another moment in the customer’s day?
Being genuinely useful in that scene
Think of a coffee. Preparing it at home, drinking it on the go and consuming it quickly during a break at work call for different conditions. Time, the means of preparation, portability and temperature preference vary. That is why a new reason to use is not created simply by showing another scene in an advertisement. The product has to be genuinely useful in that scene. A change in packaging, point of access, portion, service or pricing becomes meaningful if it removes the obstacle in the customer’s way.
This distinction matters especially in product development decisions. “Let’s make a portable version” is a proposed solution. “The customer cannot meet this need on the way to work,” by contrast, is a problem statement that can be investigated. When you choose the solution from the outset, your interviews can turn into seeking confirmation of your idea. When you first try to understand the situation, however, you may discover that the change needed is not in the product itself. Perhaps the delivery time, the purchase quantity or usage support will be enough.
Beyond consumer products
What is more, this perspective does not have to apply only to consumer products. Consider a manufacturer’s maintenance service. Could the same technical expertise provided after a breakdown also create value in the customer’s preparation for a planned production shutdown? This is not a verified customer case but a usage hypothesis that can be tested. In the second situation, the timing, the rationale for purchase and the expected outcome change. So it is not enough to offer the existing service under another name; the scope of the offer has to be designed around that moment of decision.
A similar question can be asked of a training service. A general training program for managers can carry a different value before someone who will manage a team for the first time takes up the role. The same person’s need before their first difficult feedback conversation, however, may be shorter, more concrete and closer to practice. Shrinking the content does not, on its own, meet this need. Understanding which decision the participant has to make at that moment leads you to rethink the service’s duration, method and support.
Attractiveness and economic viability
Even so, chasing every new moment of use would not be the right strategy. How well does the new opportunity fit your existing capabilities? Does the customer trust you in that role? Can the required channel, operations and cost to serve be covered? A use case may be meaningful to the customer yet unsustainable for the company. The attractiveness of an innovation and its economic viability need to be brought together in the same decision.
Starting from real behavior
That is why I suggest starting a portfolio review by choosing one of your existing products. Try to understand in which situation the customer uses it today and what happens right before. Then examine an adjacent situation in which the product is not useful. Instead of asking “Would you buy a product like this if it existed?” ask when that situation last occurred. What did the customer do, which alternative did they use, what did they spend money or time on? Real behavior is a more solid starting point than a polite answer to an appealing idea.
The next step does not have to be a big launch. You can test a small offer with a limited group of customers, in a single usage situation. Track first trial, repeat use and whether the customer gives up the solution they prefer today. Are you merely shifting sales from your existing product to another product, or is new demand emerging? Sometimes a shift away from your own product can also deliver a better customer experience or profitability. What matters is making that decision consciously.
The product manager’s job
Here the product manager’s job goes beyond growing the feature list. They need to be able to read the requests sales hears, the customer’s behavior and the company’s capabilities together. They should also build the measure of success accordingly: next to the question of whether the product has shipped, adding the questions of whether it has been used in the targeted situation, whether it has been chosen again and whether the value created covers its cost. That way, an innovation can also be evaluated after the excitement of launch day.
Of course, not every successful innovation has to create a new reason to use. Doing the same job more reliably, more accessibly or with fewer resources is also important progress. My recommendation is to be able to state clearly what value each innovation in the portfolio creates. Are we improving the existing experience, reaching another customer group, or entering a new moment of use in the customer’s life? Different purposes require different evidence.
At your next product meeting
At your next product meeting, put your launch list on the table. Next to each product, write in one sentence in which situation and for what reason the customer would choose it. If the sentences are identical, that does not necessarily mean you have a bad portfolio. But it may show that you need to rethink where you are looking for growth. Which door in the customer’s life has your product not yet been able to open?
Sources
- NIQ, 21 October 2026. Western Europe BASES Breakthrough Innovation awards. Open the source.
- Nestlé, 22 October 2026. Third-quarter and nine-month sales press release; AOA coffee commentary, p. 5. Open the source.
Management interpretations are the author’s own. The maintenance and training examples are illustrative assumptions. Image: original illustration generated with AI.