AI. Smart eyewear. New diagnostic tools. New care models. New ways to reach and serve patients.
There has never been more innovation competing for your attention, or more pressure to decide what deserves your time, money, and energy.
Yet Ruth Yomtoubian argues that some of the most promising ideas fail for reasons that have very little to do with the technology itself.
Sometimes the market is not ready. Sometimes the economics do not work. Sometimes the workflow cannot support it. And sometimes, patients say they want something, but their behavior tells a different story.
In this week’s Power Hour, host Eugene Shatsman sits down with Ruth Yomtoubian, Venture Partner at Silicon Foundry and Strategic Advisor at RuthYom Advisory, to explore a more practical way to think about innovation.
Ruth works across startups, Fortune 500 companies, healthcare, and vision care, helping organizations move beyond the hype and figure out what actually works in the real world.
And her central idea is one every practice owner should hear:
Innovation isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about learning your way toward it.
A Great Idea Can Still Fail
History is full of technologies that looked destined to win.
Some disappeared. Some returned decades later. Others created entirely new markets even though their first iteration appeared unsuccessful.
Ruth argues that the mistake is evaluating innovation in isolation.
A product can solve a real problem and still fail because the surrounding system cannot support it.
Economics matter. Workflow matters. Distribution matters. Stakeholder incentives matter.
And actual behavior matters far more than simply asking someone whether they like an idea.
For practices considering new technology, services, or business models, that changes the question from, “Is this a good idea?” to, “What would have to be true for this idea to work here?”
What Are Eye Care’s “Sacred Cows”?
Ruth uses the term sacred cows to describe assumptions the industry accepts because they have always been part of the way business gets done.
The doctor must remain at the center of the patient journey. The frame board is the natural way to shop for eyewear.
New technology needs to fit existing practice workflows. Chair time will always determine practice capacity.
Some of those assumptions may still be correct.
But Ruth’s argument is that successful industries can become especially vulnerable to assumptions because success itself creates reasons not to question what already works.
The opportunity is not to declare those assumptions wrong. It is to ask whether the world around them has changed enough that they deserve another look.
Stop Debating Ideas. Start Generating Evidence.
One of the most useful parts of the conversation is Ruth’s approach to experimentation.
Instead of spending months designing the perfect solution, or debating whether an idea could work, she encourages teams to create smaller tests that produce evidence.
At a recent eye care innovation session, participants were challenged to design a 90-day experiment for $50,000 or less that could test a major industry assumption.
The goal was to learn enough to make the next decision with greater confidence.
That distinction matters.
Because innovation does not always require a massive launch. Sometimes it means a prototype.
A limited test. A conversation with a handful of patients. A simple landing page, or observing what people actually do instead of what they say they would do.
Failure Should Produce Something Valuable
Practices experiment all the time.
A new service, new piece of equipment, campaign, or patient communication process.
And when something underperforms, the natural reaction is often:
“That didn’t work. Move on.”
Ruth argues that this may be one of the biggest missed opportunities.
A proper retrospective asks what actually happened, what evidence exists, what assumptions proved wrong, and what would need to change before the idea should be tested again.
She even recommends defining “reopening criteria, ”the conditions under which a failed or paused idea deserves another look.
Failure then becomes less of an ending. It becomes information.
The Calibration Loop
Ruth introduces what she calls the Calibration Loop, a disciplined way to experiment without pretending you can see the future.
The framework challenges leaders to begin with the right question, form a point of view without overcommitting to a prediction, and choose the smallest credible test that can move the organization forward.
The larger principle is simple:
Replace the pressure to know with a disciplined way to learn.
And because tools like AI now make prototyping dramatically faster and cheaper, practices have more opportunities than ever to test ideas before making large bets.
The future of eye care is coming quickly.
The question is whether your practice has a way to learn what works before the opportunity passes you by.
Key Takeaways
Why Good Innovation Still Fails | A great product is only one piece of the equation. Ruth explains what else needs to align before innovation can succeed.
Challenge the Assumptions You’ve Stopped Seeing | Explore the “sacred cows” hiding inside eye care, and why some may be worth testing again.
Turn Failure Into Evidence | Learn why the end of an experiment should create insight, not simply disappointment.
Experiment Without Betting the Practice | Discover how smaller, deliberate tests can help practice owners explore new ideas with far less risk.
Build a Learning Mindset | See why the practices best positioned for the future may not be the ones that predict it correctly, but the ones that learn faster.
Connect with Ruth Yomtoubian
Ruth Yomtoubian is a corporate innovation strategist and systems builder who currently serves as a Venture Partner at Silicon Foundry, advising organizations on emerging technology, transformation, and how to translate new ideas into scalable real-world impact. Previously, she served as Vice President of Global Innovation at VSP Vision, where she built and led innovation platforms, AI initiatives, and new business models, and as Director of the AT&T Foundry, where she helped commercialize startup technologies and integrate emerging solutions across the enterprise.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthyomtoubian/
Website: https://sifoundry.com/
Connect with Eugene Shatsman
Eugene Shatsman is Host of Power Hour, Managing Partner of National Strategic Group, and Co-Creator of The Eyecare BOSS. A growth strategist and consultant to hundreds of optometric practices nationwide, Eugene specializes in scaling independent eye care businesses through structured strategy, marketing science, and operational clarity.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugeneshatsman/
Website: https://eyecareboss.com/