Why People Hate Your Latest Idea

Amazon’s announcement that they’ll soon offer ‘in-home’ delivery — letting couriers literally unlock your front door — is interesting for all sorts of reasons.

Critically it underscores the importance of trust in the new digital economy. How many service providers would you allow into your home — unsupervised?

Also interesting is the public reaction, exemplified by the replies to this tweet (thanks Simon Penny)

There’s lots in the replies about Amazon now being able to steal your stuff, snoop around your home , possibly even using the opportunity to murder your family.

If you work in innovation or design it’s important we listen to, but sometimes ignore, the initial reaction to new concepts.

Let’s remember that people once thought coffee would make you sterile, train travel would give you a nosebleed, telephones would melt our brains and tractors would lead to the extinction of horses.

When people hear of something new they are bringing all sorts of emotional baggage to the table. They may oppose an innovation because it challenges a product or practice that is deeply entrenched in their identity or culture.

The British reaction to the introduction of coffee shops is a good example. They were strongly opposed for decades because of the cultural affinity for taking tea at home.

That’s why the adoption of Amazon Key will be interesting to observe — it has to combat deeply entrenched notions about the wisdom of allowing strangers into your home.

That said, history shows that if any innovation solves a long standing problem or is superior to what came before, it’s likely to get adopted regardless of the initial public reaction.

And , as Seth Godin has said, sometimes it’s more important to be different than to be better.