Failure and Learning

The Surface RT Failure

Panay describes the launch of the Surface RT as a significant failure during his tenure at Microsoft, leading to a $1 billion write-down. He emphasizes the importance of understanding what went wrong and learning from the experience. "I remember being on the front cover of a newspaper, and it just said failure," Panay said. "But, here’s the thing, it was easy to admit failure. The trick was, and always is, did you harvest the learnings and understand what happened?" He notes that the failure was not just the moment, but decisions made two years prior, such as incomplete software or wrong inventory. "There were all these steps along the way," Panay said.

Recovering from Failure

Panay stresses the importance of staying committed to a vision and learning from setbacks. He believes that founders can adapt and make progress faster by embracing failure and learning from setbacks. "It goes back to the same fundamental, like, have you learned?" Panay said. "Were you learning along the way? Because if you were learning, then you just change your vector. Usually, it’s not 180 degrees. Usually, it’s just 30 degrees. Take your lessons learned, change a little bit, adapt your vision where it needs to be, and then go."

Vision and Adaptation

Panay emphasizes the importance of staying committed to a vision and learning from experience. He believes that founders can adapt and make progress faster by embracing failure and learning from setbacks. "It goes back to the same fundamental, like, have you learned?" Panay said. "Were you learning along the way? Because if you were learning, then you just change your vector. Usually, it’s not 180 degrees. Usually, it’s just 30 degrees. Take your lessons learned, change a little bit, adapt your vision where it needs to be, and then go."

Embracing Failure

Panay encourages founders to be willing to understand what went wrong and avoid making excuses. He believes that founders can recover from all sorts of failures, even catastrophic ones, by learning from the experience. "Here’s the other side of it," Panay said. "You want to succeed, yeah? You take that failure, but you don’t let go of your vision. That’s it. Surface has done pretty well. You don’t let go of your vision. You don’t break it."

Conclusion

Panay’s message to startup founders is clear: failure is an inevitable and required part of building a successful product. He emphasizes the importance of understanding what went wrong, learning from experience, and moving quickly to adapt and make progress.