What should be our strategy if we end up creating industry first solution by understanding the need of the future but our customers are not willing to adopt the change as it's not a necessity yet? Shall we hold the project or invest more to create more buzz about the product and hope for better adoption?

If you know that customers are not willing to adopt your solution, that's a bad spot to be in.

1. Re-evaluate what led you to the decision to build & when to do it. Was there a gap in your methodology, or a piece of research that led you down this path? How can you avoid this for the next piece of strategy planning?

2. Don't hope for better adoption -- test and prove this out. Can you get a high quality signal that customers will adopt, e.g. customers will pay you now for access to it?

3. Is there a wider org that will bear the cost of holding this solution, and values it for reasons other than direct revenue?

You have a few options in this scenario: 

1. Early market maturity: Work to create and/or accelerate the market creation. For this to be a viable product strategy you need to have a product/market fit as well as a GTM approach that will allow you to find and penetrate early adopters. This strategy will also require the time/money to hold the company over as the market matures and gains strength. If you pursue this strategy, I would get clear on what the barrier is for customer adoption. Is the problem not big enough? Do they not know there is a solution? Is the technology too expensive at the moment? Is there a trust issue? Can you find the early adopters? Once you find the main barriers, you can work specifically on bringing those down. 

2. Pivot to a more mature market: Refocus on a more mature market, and hold onto your technology until you start to see signs that customer adoption could pick up. For this to be a viable strategy, there has to be a belief that the market will mature without direct intervention from you. It is also risky if being the first mover in the market is the main competitive advantage you have. Holding does give competitors time to catch-up or beat you. 

3. Create a stepping stone product: If customers are not ready to adopt your product due to one of the reasons above, you can focus on an “on-ramp” product that provides customer value today, and then can be used to introduce customers to the “industry first solution.” And examples of this could be, customers are not ready for fully autonomous cars, so start by introducing them to parking assist while they are driving.

In order to make your decision, I would follow the product strategy process I outlined for the question, “What is your end-to-end process for crafting a product strategy?”