Brief Summary
This video discusses strategies to lower barriers to adoption for new products or services. It emphasizes the importance of user-friendliness, avoiding unnecessary complexity, and recruiting evangelists who believe in the product's potential to improve the world. The key takeaways include simplifying the user experience, ensuring the product is accessible and doesn't require specialized knowledge, and actively seeking out individuals who can passionately promote the product.
- Simplify user experience and flatten the learning curve.
- Avoid asking customers to do things you wouldn't do yourself.
- Actively recruit evangelists to promote your product.
To lower barriers to adoption, avoid creating products that are overly complex or require specialized knowledge to use. The goal should be to make the product as user-friendly as possible, similar to plugging in a device and having it work immediately. A negative example is BMW's iDrive system, which requires extensive training to perform simple tasks.
Never ask customers to do something that you yourself would not do. For example, don't expect them to go back to school to understand how to use your product or spend excessive amounts of money. A positive example is the Hyatt Regency in Kauai, which provides free laundry rooms in every wing of the hotel, reducing the burden on guests.
Recruit evangelists who see your product or service as a way to improve the world. These individuals are not just stockholders or employees; they are passionate advocates who believe in your product's potential. Evangelists promote products that are fundamentally different and better. Instead of waiting for evangelists to emerge organically, actively seek them out to increase the leverage of your marketing and sales efforts. Examples of companies with strong evangelists include Tivo, Harley Davidson, Apple, and Netflix.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “Creating Business Start-Ups the Kawasaki Way”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:17 the ninth thing is to lower barriers to adoption here are the cases where you've created the world's greatest mousetrap the nuclear-powered mousetrap you kill mites better than anybody in the history of mankind mouse goes in there's little explosion little mushroom cloud the mouse is gone you murder mice really well you got the design from lawrence livermore or you stole it from los alamos i don't know how you got it somehow you really murder my swell so here's the barriers to adoption first of all your mousetrap is nuclear powered however you need a phd in applied physics to set the mouse trap the learning curve is so high it's almost as difficult as setting the clock on a vcr it's that high right
1:04 the fundamental model the metaphor that you should aspire to is you open the box you plug in the chords you go that's what it should be like you should not need a phd in physics to set your mouse trap flatten the learning curve by contrast if any of you buy a bmw there's something in the bmw called an idrive which is their interface for their electronics if you take a two hour course you will then be able to change the radio station that is the antithesis of the flattening the learning curve second point is never ask people to do something that you yourself would not do you wouldn't go back to school to get a phd in physics to set a mouse trap you wouldn't drive 300 miles to drop off a dead radioactive mouse you wouldn't pay
1:51 250 000 for a mouse trap don't expect customers to do this either the reason why there's a washing machine in this picture is because i have a positive example which is the kawaii hired regency the quahog regency and every wing of the hotel there's a laundry room that means there's one less guest room it means that people send out less laundry through the laundry system then if you went into the laundry room you would see that the washers and dryers are free so at a hyatt regency at kauai they're not charging you to wash the clothes that is a good example a positive example of this theory the third point is you need to recruit evangelists at the start of a company you need to recruit evangelists they're not stockholders they're not employees they see your product or service as a way to make the world a better place there's no more
2:36 higher leverage than recruiting evangelists evangelists view your product or service as bringing the good news that's the greek base word for evangelism bringing the good news it means that you had to have thought differently that you jumped curves that you're not just better faster cheaper you're fundamentally different that's what evangelists do they evangelize and proselytize things that are fundamentally different and better having seen the example of tivo recruit evangelists and harley davidson have evangelists and apple have evangelists and netflix have evangelists at this point in e-commerce and commerce you would think that people understand when you have a great product or service you will get evangelists
3:21 i don't think that people have quite understood that when you have this great product or service i'm telling you go get your evangelists don't wait for them to bubble up don't wait years for these groups to form go get them go get them you will increase the leverage of your marketing sales tremendously by doing that
