🧠 Fix the “Stupid” Before You Chase the “Smart”

Hi there,

What’s the stupidest thing your team or customers put up with?

This week I had the pleasure of attending a talk at the National Manufacturing Institute by master inventor and innovation legend, Doug Hall.

If you’re not familiar with his work, Doug is a chemical engineer by training, a Procter & Gamble alum, and the founder of Eureka Ranch; a company that’s helped over 25,000 teams bring innovative products to market.

Think of a Fortune 100/500 company and Doug has probably worked with them.

Doug's approach blends systems thinking, frontline empowerment, and rapid experimentation.

In one of the most energising talks I've heard in a while, Doug delivered a line I just can't stop thinking about:

It's a simple reminder that most teams don’t fail because they lack big ideas.

They fail because they keep tripping over small, fixable stupidity; the process gaps, unclear messaging, and false assumptions we all learn to tolerate.

And it’s as true in marketing as it is in manufacturing.

Fake experiments are the new "busywork"

A lot of what passes for “experimentation” in marketing today is ‘optimisation theatre'.

A/B tests with no hypothesis. Personalisation that no one notices. Measurement that’s too fuzzy to inform a decision...

We’ve confused shipping with learning.

Doug promotes a framework (by Edward Deming) called PDSA — Plan, Do, Study, Act — to run improvement cycles.

It’s not sexy, but it is surgical.

You try something small, study what happened, and use that insight to take smarter action.

In marketing, we often skip the “Study” step.

And we almost never act on what we learn... because we weren’t sure what we were testing in the first place!

The “Stupid” we don’t talk about

Most teams aren’t held back by a lack of AI strategy or brand building. They’re stuck in the stupid:

• Unclear value props that make sense to no one outside the org

• Inside-out messaging that’s all product, no customer

• Funnel leaks we’ve normalised because fixing them isn’t exciting

This isn’t about blame; it’s about design.

If your team can’t tell what the message is or why it matters, your customers don’t stand a chance.

Stupid vs. Smart (Quick Reference)

How to spot the Stupid

Doug says the real test is simple: if your team ends the day "sore", not "tired";  it’s a system problem, not a people problem.

"Tired" means your team gave a full effort and made meaningful progress. "Sore" means they spent their energy fighting broken tools, bad briefs, handoffs, or unclear direction.

When work drains people without moving anything forward, that’s not a performance issue; it’s a system design flaw.

Try this today (I’m certainly going to):

• Audit your “experiments”. Which ones actually changed behaviour?

• Ask your team: what’s a “marketing workaround” they wish they didn’t have to do?

• Review a recent campaign or project brief. Could someone outside your team understand the “what (we need)” and the “why (we need it)”?

Your next growth leap probably won’t come from a smarter marketing tactic.

It’ll come from fixing the stuff that’s too boring to make the roadmap.

Because when you make it easier for your team to do the right thing, it gets easier for customers to choose you.

Fix the stupid. Then go chase the smart.

Speak soon,

Peter

P.S. Want to go deeper into Doug’s methods? Start with Eureka Europe or grab one of his books; Jump Start Your Business Brain is a great intro.

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