“Failure plays an important role in innovation because it offers cycles of learning if you fail early, fail often and learn from your mistakes. If you keeping failing for the same reasons and do nothing about it, that’s the definition of insanity”- Dr. Samuel H. Liggero, Professor of the Practice, Tufts Gordon Institute

Last week I attended the GamCrowd Tech Conference, an event dedicated to the latest technical innovations influencing our industry today.  A presentation delivered by Digital Transformation Consultant Marcus Wareham covered the importance of failure in the pursuit of innovation and how we can learn from our mistakes.

Fail fast and carry on, because if you don’t, you won’t succeed”, said Wareham.

Wareham cited several examples of companies in our industry who innovated and failed, learned from their mistakes and tried again.  Paddy Power, for example, launched “Paddy Power In-Play” in 2013, an app allowing customers to place bets through Facebook, but the feature only lasted for one year due to its failure to catch on.  Fast forward three years and after learning from their failure, Paddy Power is trying again, but this time bets can be placed via Facebook Messenger and customers do not have to bother with downloading an app.