The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed

Asking why some ideas succeed and some fail, Savoia, former director of engineering for Google, proffers a theory in his persuasive if unsubstantial debut: it’s imperative to “make sure that you are building The Right It before you build it.” For Savoia, all ideas can be classified as either the Right It—“an idea for a new product that, if competently executed, will succeed in the market”—or the Wrong It, which will fail under the same circumstances. The Right It beats the “Law of Market Failure”: no matter how well implemented, “most new products will fail in the market.” In finding an answer to the question WTF? (Why the Failure?), Savoia guides readers through creating conditions for the Right It: relying on data rather than opinions, clarifying one’s thinking and logic, developing “pretotypes”—nonfunctional mockups designed to test the desire for a new idea—as well as workable prototypes, and choosing the tools at one’s disposal. Energetic and clear, this would have made a good TED Talk, but as a book, it feels more superficial than substantive and does little to stand out from its competitors. (Feb.)