Death, Taxes & Adoption Barriers
Innovation Risks are as high as Adoption Barriers!
Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication! How come? Read on!
In the wars of high-tech innovations, are the battles fought and won with the weapons of Complexity, Novelty, and Sophistication?
They are definitely fought, and fought hard with tonnes of money spent and fought by some very bright people spending countless hours of efforts.
But are these battles won with these weapons?
Absolutely not!
From the corporate research labs to industry sponsored innovation labs to market oriented corporate innovation programs, this is what we have always seen.
More sophisticated the tech, greater the innovation. Its significance linked to the degree of technology applied or scientific breakthrough achieved, the novelty of the invention or the patentability of the IP. The innovator too coming with a strong technical, scientific, and engineering orientation backed with degrees, pedigree and experience, considers it worth the while to spend the time, intellect, and effort only if the innovation involves sophistication. Not merely sophisticated tech that is applied to build out the innovation but also in terms of the boatload of features shipped with functionality and performance dripping in high-tech.
However, unless the innovation is used and feedback offered, the risks in terms of whether the product will actually sell remains and only increases with every passing day and additional buck spent. So, what matters even more than the sophistication of the innovation — Complexity or Superiority, is the Utility, the Deployability.
Is the Customer/User able to test, trial and validate in the first place? For that the innovation has to be easy to use and straightforward to adopt, so that the value offered by the innovator can be tested/validated by the user/customer.
So, Usability! It matters, oh hell yeah! It matters way more than Utility.
However high Utility maybe in terms of the benefits offered, the gains created or the pains relieved, to adopt and use anything new means that we have to make that thing (product or service) a part of our lives. It has to fit into the way we are used to doing things in our everyday lives. It has to fit our habits, preferences and biases. Of course in the longer run after we experience the benefits the thing has to offer and the positive changes it brings we will automatically become more motivated to accept the innovation.
But to start with, our motivations are lower. Even if it solves a very important problem, and promises to offer valuable benefits, we are reluctant to try it out. In this context, we are not willing to be swayed by the Complexity & Sophistication of the technology, nor by the higher order of Utility. These things will certainly get us very interested to begin with and even spend time and effort in trying to understand more about the innovation and what it has in store for us. But to actually start using it, not just once but on a daily or a regular basis we need much much more convincing. And unless we do so, we cannot fully experience the value proposition offered and this means that the innovator will not be getting accurate feedback for the million dollar question, “How much are you willing to pay to buy and use this innovation?”!
Adoption Barriers, Let’s face it!
In attempting to solve real-world problems — specifically in the cases where current alternatives exist in the form of branded products/solutions in the organised market/sector, it is most important to study the adoption barriers that are preventing target customers/users from buying and using the product.
And in those cases where alternatives don’t exist, it is imperative to launch a product that is specifically designed with the singular purpose to overcome adoption barriers.
In simple terms, Adoption Barriers are quite literally mountains your target end user shall have to climb over and cross in order to be able to buy, use and experience the promised value proposition you wish to deliver.
Adoption barriers are those perspectives (financial, technical, functional) of the target customers/users that prevent them from making new/innovative solutions a part of their lives. The problems can be solved and outcomes/gains realised only if solutions can become part of lives — as in the everyday routines, behaviours, activities or tasks. These user/customer perspectives tend to increase the perceived risk of buying/using the product.
To overcome adoption barriers innovations should offer a significant gain realised with the least change in habit, lowest financial risk, minimal side effects etc. In many cases, a ‘good is good enough’ version of the product that offers only minimal utility but is able to help the end user by overcoming the adoption barriers stands out in terms of usability (or deployability).
Think Gmail!
It was launched with all but 5 features against the conventional alternative of MS Outlook or IBM Lotus that each had thousands of features. For the millions of first time internet email users Gmail was better than any of the other prevailing internet options that were free but cumbersome to use.
Do you think not loading it with features made it less attractive for users to give Gmail a try? Nope, not at all!
Adoption Barriers out there!
- TCO [Total Cost of Ownership or Lifetime Cost of Buying & Using a Product]
- Maintenance/Service
- Skills/Expertise
- Installation/Integration
- Resources/materials
- Time consumption
- Physical/personal risk
- Product training
- Changes to habits/process
- Accessibility
- Inability to assess quality of the product/service [Risk Perception]
- Monitoring the usage/deployment
As an innovator it is imperative to study whether any/all of these adoption barriers do have a role to play in the context of your innovation and its target customer/user.
The details emerging from this study should be documented as the Usability/deployment constraints, which the innovation should comply with 100% without compromise. Over time this technique gets embedded into the innovation process and is a sure fire way to de-risk innovations by overcoming adoption barriers.
