“Crossing the chasms” – Yes, there are more than one

The classical “crossing the chasm” model ignores critical challenges in the product life cycle. There are more than one chasms you need to cross on your way to success.

Since Geoffrey Moore introduced the concept of the Chasm for marketing and selling high-tech products in 1991, the conversation was mostly focused on moving from Early Adopters to Mainstream customers, and building strategies that will enable that success. The planning was aimed to take a fully developed, market-ready product to the market, and winning various market segments and customer types while building the organization to growth. Not surprisingly, the sub-title of Moore’s book is: “Marketing and selling disruptive products to mainstream customers”. He focused his book on the marketing and selling of completed products and not on the development of those products.  This was illustrated in the well-known chasm drawing that presented the chasm between the early adopters and the mainstream customers.  Continue reading ““Crossing the chasms” – Yes, there are more than one”

When should you not listen to your customers’ requests?

Product managers are always taught to drive their product direction based on their customers’ requirements, but that is not always the right approach.

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According to a famous legend, Henry Ford once said: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse”. Although it is likely that Henry Ford have never really said those exact words (see here), they represent an approach that many innovators (including Ford) took, and used to change the world. Continue reading “When should you not listen to your customers’ requests?”

What do Public Clouds and Mobile Phones Have In Common?

As organizations benefit from new capabilities in the public cloud, they are willing to forego requirements and expectations they have always assume to be mandatory. Just ask the mobile phones industry.

When I talk about public clouds and how mission critical workloads are moving to run there, I am often being asked: “but how would enterprises agree to run in the public cloud, when it means they lose a lot of flexibility and control on the infrastructure, and have less optimal environment for their applications”? Continue reading “What do Public Clouds and Mobile Phones Have In Common?”