As a designer, one of the favourite parts of my job is sitting in that first meeting with a client. I’m lucky enough to work with some of the world’s market leaders and some early-stage start-ups. Hearing the passion someone has for their business fires up my creative muscles. It’s integral for designers to get as fired up about a client’s idea as if it was their own.
Yet, one thing has stood out when I talk to early-stage start-ups. When you ask them ‘Who is this product for?’, they tend to reply with a big grin ‘Everyone’. This may seem cute and ambitious but you’ve dug yourself into a hole.
As the old saying goes ‘If you speak to everyone, you speak to no-one.’
Often, when trying to put form around their idea, start-ups tend to get over excited. They think they can target ‘everyone’ right away. Even if your product is that universal, you’re never going to reach 100% market penetration straight out the gate.
Creating a great, successful product means focusing on a “power” user. That’s a fancy UX term for someone who would benefit most from using your product. This could be an existing customer. Or for start-ups, it’s those people who got that excited look in their eyes when you told them about your idea.
We base this on something we call the ‘Diffusion of Innovation’. A theory first put forward by sociologist Everett Rogers. The diffusion of innovation states that when we put forth a new idea to society, we split into 5 loose groups. These are: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards.
We all sit on scale in different places, at different points in time. Those ‘early adopters’ are the ones who stood in-line when the first iPhone came out. The Laggards are the sort of people who still don’t have broadband.
When you release your idea to those ‘early adopters’, you can test and iterate on their feedback. Only once you’ve ‘crossed the chasm’, that means you can achieve full market penetration.
We know this about our own lives. Often we don’t try a new idea until someone else tries it first. Or sometimes you hit something early on and then 6 months later — everyone is doing it. One day we’re the majority, another we’re the early adopters.
This is why any new product team should ship early and ship often. During the initial design phase, you should test with those ‘early adopters’. Afterwards, ship out an MVP which gives you fast feedback on what is great (and not so great) about the product. This problem-solution fit.
Entrepreneurs start a company out of the belief they have for themselves and their idea. So it’s natural they want everyone to get it right away. We’ve found it always returns better when you focus on those ‘early adopters’ first. Then let the majority discover how great you are for themselves.
