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Yet by 2007 the product was such a failure that Michelin had to abandon it.

The company hadn’t confronted the entire ecosystem the tire would rely on

conversion costs

expensive new equipment

legal challenges

Mastery of the ecosystem is the great strength that made Apple the supreme success story of our time,

The iPod

a beginning ecosystem that Jobs enlarged by introducing the iTunes Music Store.

the ecosystem further by opening up the Mac-only device to PC users.

In a world where mobile phone makers sold their devices to operators to sell to consumers, Jobs had such a powerful ecosystem that he could get operators to compete to partner with him: “And here was Apple, offering not just exclusive access to the most talked-about phone in history, but also exclusive access to Apple consumers—the most desirable customer segment imaginable

How do you take the measure of the ecosystem that your innovation will need to be part of and rely on? How do you not miss the blind spots that can lurk almost anywhere?

three main steps to take.

There are terrible pitfalls in the usual progression from prototype to pilot to rollout. It relies perilously on getting everything right from the very start. Often a far wiser and safer approach can be what Adner calls a “minimum viable footprint (MVF) rollout followed by a staged expansion.” In other words, start with a complete ecosystem, but a limited one.