Product Development: The Simplicity U-Turn
PC Mag recently cited an Accenture study stating that 68% of electronic product returns worked properly! That means the main issue was that either the product was difficult to use or set up. While it is easy to blame the stupidity of consumers for not understanding how to use your product, you should really ask who is the stupid one? All too often companies get focused on building the best technology; chanting the mantras "add more features", "improve performance". In product development meetings we rarely hear the word "simplify".
Of course it is not necessarily your fault. Early on in your product's life, you had to market to the early adopters. They have a good understanding of technology and will likely get a product with the worst user interface working. They also pound the drum of new features, better performance so that they can get an edge on their competition. So it's not your fault, you were trained to think this way by your customers.
The problem is that the elusive "Early Majority" mass market across Moore's Chasm do not want new features and better performance. It is very likely you have too many features and your performance is more than good enough for them. The value proposition they are looking for is "give me an easy way to solve a pressing problem". They usually don't even want to get an edge on competitors; they just want to keep up with everyone else.
Can you see the problem here. On one side your current customers want more features, better performance that gives them an edge and on the other side your future customers want easy to solve a current problem that will help them keep up with their competitors. What is easy for these groups to demand will be a nightmare for your company to deliver without incredible discipline. At the drop of a hat, you will need to turn your product development strategy 180 degrees; moving from performance to simplicity. It requires an incredible mindset shift and often requires new employees who bring that view to the company. Crossing the Chasm is a great book to help you understand strategically (and tactically) what you need to do, but I will try to summarize some steps.
- Pick a focused segment of the mass market with an incredibly focused painful problem.
- Deliver the entire solution to new target market even if this requires you to partner with other companies. This also means making the solution as easy as possible for the customer.
- Position your product in a category that the new target market understands with two competitors - a budget product and a differentiated product. These will help legitimize your solution and differentiate it as the best solution.
This is not an easy task. Most companies fall into the depths of the chasm never to be heard from again. The goal is to avoid those 68% of product returns because your product is too complicated for the customer to use. Your solution may solve their problem completely, but if they can't figure it out immediately, there attention will move elsewhere - plunging you head first into the chasm.
