Excellence is about Expectations

Most products don’t fail because they’re bad.

Most services don’t fail because they’re broken.

They fail because something essential is missing.

We usually talk about excellence in products and services based on three things:

Quality.

Utility.

Desirability.

And most of the time, that’s true.

But here’s the part we sometimes can forget... those three components are always judged through expectations.

Quality doesn’t mean “highest possible quality.”

It means the quality people expected for the price and purpose.

Utility doesn’t mean “does everything.”

It means does exactly what it promised to do.

Desirability doesn’t mean “luxury.”

It means feels worth choosing in its context.

That’s why some low-cost, short-life products succeed.

People expect to replace them.

They expect tradeoffs.

And those expectations are met.

That’s just a different form of excellence.

You can get traction with one strength.

You can grow with two.

But long-term excellence comes from aligning all three strengths to the right expectations.

Where does your product or service need the most support... quality, utility, or desirability?