How to Launch a New Product Every 90 Days | Think Outside Group

Associations are rarely short of ideas. 

New services, member programs, revenue opportunities and ways to improve engagement can come from staff, members, suppliers, committees and boards.

The challenge is often what happens next.

Ideas can be stopped early because they do not fit the current budget, operating plan or resourcing model, or because the organisation is understandably cautious about risk. Those considerations matter, but if they become the default response, innovation can slow to the point where the association struggles to keep pace with the people and industries it serves.

The alternative is not to take bigger risks, it is to get better at testing ideas.

In this article, Think Outside Group Managing Director Lindsay McGrath explores the idea of launching a new product or service every 90 days, not as a target for constant large-scale launches, but as a discipline for creating small, controlled experiments, learning quickly and building organisational confidence in trying new things.

It is a useful challenge for association leaders because the question shifts from “Why would we do this?” to “What would it take to test whether this could work?”

“Launch a new product or service every 90 days.”

It’s a line that often lands somewhere between curiosity and quiet panic when raised in a boardroom. For many CEOs and Directors, the immediate response is predictable, concerns about capacity, risk, governance, and financial pressure.

But what if the constraint isn’t resources? What if the real barrier is the question you’re asking? Because the moment you shift from “Why would we?” to “What if we did?”, the conversation changes. And in that shift lies one of the most practical levers for innovation in associations.

From Caution to Curiosity

In most associations, there is no shortage of ideas. They come from members, suppliers, partners, committees, boards, and staff. Suggestions surface constantly, new services, new revenue streams, new ways to engage.

Yet many are stopped before they start. Not because they lack merit, but because they don’t neatly align with existing structures:

• It doesn’t fit the current budget
• It doesn’t align with this year’s plan
• We don’t have the resources
• Governance won’t support it

These are all valid considerations. But when they become the default response, they quietly reinforce a culture where saying no is easier than exploring what’s possible.

And yet, in the very next board cycle, the same organisation is asking: “Where will our growth come from?” This is where your role as a CEO or Director becomes critical. The question is not whether your association needs innovation. The question is whether your leadership environment allows it.

Start with a Better Question

One of the simplest shifts you can make in your organisation is linguistic.

Instead of asking:

• Does this fit?
• Can we afford this?
• Is this aligned?

Start with:

• What if we tried this?
• What’s the opportunity here?

These questions do not ignore governance or risk, they delay judgement long enough to allow thinking. They create space for exploration before evaluation.

In a board or executive setting, this can be powerful. It moves the conversation away from binary approval or rejection and towards constructive development. A useful follow-up question is: What would it take to make this work? Now the discussion becomes practical, not philosophical.

Innovation Doesn’t Start Big

There is a common misconception that innovation requires large, transformational projects. In reality, it starts much smaller, and far more consistently. If you want to build an innovative culture in your association, start with:

• Small, testable initiatives
• Clear measures of success
• Fast feedback loops
• A willingness to adjust or stop

This is where leadership matters most. You are setting the tone for how your organisation responds to uncertainty. Like most leaders, you won’t enjoy failure. But your organisation’s ability to innovate depends on how safely it can test ideas without consequence.

That doesn’t mean reckless decisions. It means controlled experimentation. Some initiatives will be minor, small adjustments to existing programs, pricing, or delivery. Others may be more ambitious.

Both are valuable. Because over time, these small iterations compound into meaningful change.

Reframing Risk at Board Level

Boards are designed to manage risk. That will not change and nor should it. But the way risk is framed can either enable or restrict progress. A purely risk-averse mindset often leads to a focus on:

• What could go wrong
• What might be lost
• What must be protected

A more balanced approach introduces a second lens: What is the risk of doing nothing?

In many industries, the pace of change is accelerating. Member expectations are shifting. New competitors, often more agile and less constrained, are entering the market. If your association is not evolving at a similar pace to its leading members, it risks becoming irrelevant.

That is not a failure of intent. It is a failure of pace.

As a Director or CEO, your role is not to eliminate risk, but to ensure it is understood, managed, and balanced against opportunity.

Changing the Conversation in the Room

One of the most practical tools you can introduce immediately is a shift in how conversations are facilitated.

In your next board or executive meeting, try this:

When a challenge is raised, respond with:

• What if we approached this differently?
• What’s the opportunity within this risk?
• How would we measure impact?

Then follow with:

• And then what happens?

This simple sequence does two things:

1. It prevents immediate shutdown of ideas
2. It forces deeper thinking about consequences and responses

For example: “We could lose 10 per cent of our membership.”

Instead of stopping there:

• What if we did?
• What’s the opportunity in repositioning our value?
• How would we win them back?

This doesn’t remove the risk, it contextualises it. It also reinforces a critical leadership truth: Change will always create some level of disruption. The question is whether that disruption is purposeful.

Your Role in Setting the Pace

Associations hold a unique position. You are not just serving members, you are often representing and shaping an entire industry.

That comes with an implicit expectation: You should be at least as progressive as the leading edge of your sector.

This does not mean behaving like a start-up. It does mean:

• Understanding where your industry is heading
• Matching the pace of your most progressive members
• Creating an environment where new ideas can be explored responsibly

If that environment does not exist, innovation becomes dependent on individuals rather than embedded in culture. And that is difficult to sustain.

A Practical Starting Point

If you are looking for a simple place to begin, start here:

• Identify one small initiative aligned to your purpose
• Allocate limited, defined resources
• Set a short timeframe
• Measure the outcome
• Decide whether to scale, iterate, or stop

Then repeat. Consistency matters more than scale. Because over time, this creates something far more valuable than a single successful project, it builds organisational confidence in trying new things.

Final Thought: The Question That Drives Growth

Innovation in associations is rarely limited by ideas. It is limited by the environment in which those ideas are tested.

As a CEO or Director, you set that environment. So the next time a new idea surfaces, whether in a boardroom, committee, or team discussion pause before evaluating it. Instead, ask:

• What if this worked?
• What’s the opportunity and impact here?
• What would it take to test it?

Because the organisations that continue to grow are not the ones that avoid risk. They are the ones that create the conditions to explore it, deliberately, responsibly, and consistently. If you'd like to know more, reach out to the Think Outside Group to discuss how we can help.

Innovation does not need to mean betting the organisation on one large idea.

For associations, a more sustainable approach can be to create a regular rhythm of testing, learning and deciding. Identify an opportunity, define the resources available, set a short timeframe, establish what success looks like, then decide whether to scale it, improve it or stop.

That creates a very different culture from one where ideas need to be fully proven before they are allowed to begin.

For association leaders, there is a useful question to take away:

When a new idea is raised in our organisation, do we first explore how we could test it, or do we first look for reasons it will not work?

The objective is not to remove governance, financial discipline or risk management. It is to balance those responsibilities with the risk of doing nothing, particularly when member expectations, markets and competitors are moving quickly.

A 90-day cycle creates a practical way to start. Keep the initiative small, make the boundaries clear, agree on the measures and learn from the outcome. Some ideas will grow, some will change and some should stop, but each test gives the organisation better information for the next decision.

Over time, the real value may not be the individual products launched, it may be an association that has become more comfortable exploring opportunity, responding to change and turning ideas into action.

A big thank you to Think Outside Group and Lindsay McGrath for sharing this practical perspective on innovation, growth and leadership with the AFA community.

Read their article here.

About Think Outside Group

Think Outside Group works with associations and not-for-profit organisations across strategy, governance, operations, marketing and organisational performance, helping leaders turn strategic intent into practical action.