Background: This paper documents an unsuccessful attempt to develop a comprehensive artefact to mitigate software product variability within complex organisational contexts. The narrative unfolds in two parts: the initial endeavour to create the artefact and the subsequent retrospective analysis aimed at understanding the reasons behind its lack of adoption in practical settings. The primary emphasis lies in retrospective analysis, as it offers the most valuable insights and lessons learned. Methodology: The study encompassed five large international industrial organisations, all producing products featuring embedded software. It proceeded in two key steps: first, knowledge-seeking activities involving focus group interviews with representatives from these organisations, and second, leveraging this acquired knowledge to pursue solutions to develop a general artefact for mitigating software product variability within our five organisations. This approach aligns with the design science paradigm. Results: Our results yield two key findings: firstly, insights into the challenges of generalisation, particularly regarding the risk of creating overly abstract solutions; and secondly, the complexities involved in achieving industry adoption of research findings. These two issues are closely intertwined, as increased involvement from industry organisations is essential for the development of more concrete solutions. Our study also critiques placing excessive reliance on empirical research, assuming that merely following an empirical research method will inevitably yield positive outcomes. Conclusions: If we aim in software engineering research not only to construct abstract solutions and propose pathways for progress but also to co-create the future together with practitioners, a new mindset is necessary.Over the past 15 years, we have collaborated with over 50 industrial organisations, including the healthcare sector and municipalities, many time successfully creating new knowledge. However, the collaboration has often remained a partnership between the industry and academia, with academia bearing the brunt of the workload, in most cases with the risk of making solutions too abstract and not validated properly.

Rogardt Heldal is a professor of Software Engineering at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Heldal holds an honours degree in Computer Science from Glasgow University, Scotland and a PhD in Computer Science from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Many of his research projects are performed in collaboration with the industry. Currently, he is part of a large national project to monitor the ocean, to build a smart ocean platform. He has more than 100+ papers in top conferences and journals.