Want to Create Something That People Love? It Must Have These Two Things

This is a newsletter about how you can build a better future. Ready to seize tomorrow? Subscribe here — and don't forget to pre-order my book on how to be more adaptable in your career!*

Reggie Fils-Aimé knows how to innovate.

When he became Nintendo of America’s president in 2006, the video game industry was sagging. Then he helped revive it with fresh ideas — overseeing the birth of Wii, Nintendo Switch, and more, and becoming the face of the brand.

How’d he do it? Fils-Aimé has a simple formula for innovation.

“Whether it’s a physical product, a service, or even a creative idea, I talk about it in terms of: They need to be relevant but unexpected,” he told me when we spoke for my Problem Solvers podcast. “It needs to be something the consumer can relate to, but you need to do it in a completely new and different way.”

In other words: Relevance + unexpected = greatness.

This is a handy way to think, because the two parts balance each other out. If something is relevant but unexpected, then it is useful but boring. (A new mop!) If it is unexpected but not relevant, then it is amazing but useless. (A flying mop!)

If you get this balance wrong, even the most brilliant ideas might not catch on.

In fact, that nearly happened with the Nintendo’s revolutionary Wii. Here is the story of a decision that might have upset the balance of relevance and unexpectedness — and changed the game in all the wrong ways.

The Wii That Almost Wasn’t

Let’s go back to 2006. Nintendo was preparing to release Wii, a new gaming console with motion sensors. This meant you could wave your controllers around and see your movements reflected on the screen — a mind-blowing idea at the time.

Before release, everyone at Nintendo knew what their best game was: It was called Wii Sports, and it contained a bundle of games — tennis, golf, boxing, and so on — that could be played with the controllers. Nintendo execs expected Wii Sports to be a money-maker. Some estimated that one out of every two Wii owners would buy the game.

But Fils-Aimé saw a problem. The Wii was unlike anything that gamers had played before, which meant Nintendo couldn’t just introduce it to people. “We wanted it to have a proof of concept,” he said. “We wanted to have an easy way for every consumer to get engaged with the system.”

Wii Sports was the perfect candidate. If people played Wii Sports, they’d immediately appreciate Wii’s power and buy more games.

That’s why Fils-Aimé wanted to gave Wii Sports away for free. It would just come bundled in with the Wii itself.

Other Nintendo execs disagreed. “Their mentality was, ‘Our developers are working hard to create the software, and we want to monetize it,’” Fils-Aimé said.

But the way he saw it, Nintendo risked upsetting the balance of relevance + unexpected.

Yes, the Wii was full of surprises. Nobody had played a gaming console like this! But if the Wii felt too crazy and weird, people might think it’s complicated and unappealing.

Wii Sports was the relevance that Nintendo’s unexpected needed. The game contained simple, familiar sports that anyone could appreciate.

“I kept pushing for the clear and logical business case,” he said. “I was relentless.”

And what was the result?

Free the Wii!

Nintendo decided to have it both ways: The company bundled Wii Sports in America and Europe, and it sold the game separately in Japan.

After Wii hit the market, Nintendo got to see how right Fils-Aimé was. His markets, where Wii Sports was bundled in for free, drove adoption much faster and led the Wii business worldwide.

“There had been tennis games. There had been baseball games. But those were played by pushing a button,” said Fils-Aimé, who also told this story in his new book. “Never had they been done where you would swing your arm, like you had a racket in your hand hitting the virtual tennis ball.”

He’d achieved it: Wii was highly unexpected, and now it was highly relevant too.

It's the balance that, in our own work, we all should strive to strike.

_________________________________________

Let's Connect!

Like what you read? Subscribe and take control of your future.

🕵🏻‍♀️ Looking for more lessons to help you change? Check archives.

💌 What do you think? Let me know!

👋 Say hello on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

📕 Pre-order my book to become more adaptable in your career!

🎧 Latest podcast: The Four-Day Workweek Is Here