What are your strengths? What about your weaknesses?
We tend to think of the answers to these common job interview questions in general terms, but in reality, our strengths and weaknesses are defined by the context.
Take significant experience and expertise for example. Having experience and expertise can be powerful assets in propelling understanding, problem-solving, and innovation in some contexts, while in others, they can blind us to opportunities right in front of us.
Same is true for products, services, and experiences we may be innovating. What might be considered a bug in one context is a feature in another.
Take Red Bull for example, which has the highest market share of any energy drink in the world. Red Bull tastes like carbonated cough syrup (to some people), comes in a tiny can, and costs far more than the equivalent amount of coffee that can easily be brewed at home and delivers slightly more caffeine per millilitre (a 248-mL can of regular or sugar-free Red Bull contains 75–80 mg of caffeine while a 240-mL cup of coffee contains around 95 mg of caffeine). In some contexts, Red Bull’s attributes could be viewed as weaknesses, but Red Bull has cleverly leveraged these as strengths in the right contexts to give it the wings needed to differentiate itself from the competition and dominate the market.
When you’re thinking about strengths and weaknesses related to innovation and marketing, consider the context.
What insights might the context give you about opportunities to better leverage both your own strengths as an innovator and those of whatever you are innovating? Through the window of context, what possibilities do you see to transform your weaknesses into competitive advantages?
Like Red Bull, weaknesses give you wings—that is if you’re intentional about the context.
