Reverse Benchmarking: Start by thinking about the outcome you want.

I recently watched a video by Rory Sutherland about the value of unusual ideas, even those that seem unrelated to the problems we face. Most problems aren’t new—someone has already solved them before. Our ideas can feel out of place because we compare them to others’ solutions. True innovation usually comes from tackling old problems in new ways. Copying industry leaders too closely often results in average outcomes. We’re taught to follow best practices, stick to proven methods, and avoid unnecessary changes. If something works, we’re told to leave it alone. This will not bring the innovation you are looking for.

What is Reverse Benchmarking?

Reverse Benchmarking asks us to rethink how we approach innovation by starting with the outcome we want to achieve, rather than traditional benchmarking, which typically involves replicating industry leaders' practices. Instead of analyzing and adopting existing best practices, Reverse Benchmarking centers on defining our desired outcomes and working backward to identify novel strategies to achieve them.

Why Focus on What's Broken?

I want to share a bold approach I’ve been exploring called Reverse Benchmarking. Rather than aiming for perfection, we begin by asking what’s broken, what’s been left behind because it didn’t work, and where others are struggling. The goal is to spot these gaps and turn them into your team’s strengths.

Turning Failures Into Opportunities

To make this idea actionable, here’s a simple starting exercise you can try with your team: Hold a short 'failure review' session. Ask everyone to think of one past project or feature that didn’t go as planned, or a process that consistently causes frustration. Discuss what went wrong, why it was set aside, and what lessons were learned. Together, look for patterns or overlooked opportunities in these stories. By surfacing and re-examining past failures, you can identify hidden areas where your team can innovate and create real impact.

What is Reverse Benchmarking? Here’s a clue: it’s not about copying others.

Changing How We Think

For me, Reverse Benchmarking is about changing how we think. Usually, we look at top teams and try to copy them. Reverse Benchmarking does the opposite. We ask, "What common failures or ignored areas in our process can we fix or use to our advantage?"

Three Ways to Spot Opportunities

Playing Detective: Look at past project failures, like bugs that caused major problems or features that were quietly removed. Reviewing this post-mortem data helps us see where our process really breaks down.

Spotting the "Too Hard": We look for challenges that others avoid because they seem too tough or unusual. If competitors ignore a key problem, we see it as a possible opportunity. It’s also important to listen to users and customers when technical issues make our system unavailable. To make this even more powerful, try gathering your team for a quick brainstorming session. Invite everyone to share examples of 'too hard' problems they have faced or seen avoided. Capture all the suggestions, no matter how small or difficult they seem. This collaborative approach can uncover hidden challenges and fresh opportunities for your team to solve.

Working Backward from Pain: If a task feels bogged down by too much bureaucracy, we don’t just add more resources. Instead, we look for the real cause, such as missing infrastructure, insufficient automation, or a company culture that avoids taking risks.

Rory Sutherland’s advice is straightforward: don’t copy the best. Instead, find what they do poorly and become great at that. For software engineering teams, this means spotting pain points or features that others overlook and turning them into your strengths. By focusing on what others ignore, you build a product that truly stands out and solves real user problems. This is a pattern seen across many successful startups. Airbnb, Duolingo, Stripe, and Slack show that tackling ignored or underestimated pain points can lead to breakthrough products, whether in software, hospitality, education, finance, or collaboration.

I’m a fan of the Theory of Constraints: we need to tackle our biggest weakness first. Fixing small issues doesn’t help if the main bottleneck remains.

Final Thought: Embrace Your Team’s Flaws

I encourage all of us to take action: accept the flaws, stop chasing someone else’s high standards, and find our own way. Focus on finding gaps, noticing friction, and using your unique strengths. Build a culture shaped by your choices.

Start today by addressing just one overlooked pain point or blind spot in your team. As a specific first step, schedule a short team meeting in the next week and invite everyone to bring an example of a past project or process that frustrated them. Use this as a springboard to identify opportunities for improvement together. Lead the change and let your differences become your advantage.