Credits : Jurgen Apello, Agilityscales.com, september 17 th , 2018
The first automobiles looked like horse carriages without horses.
This curious little fact came to my mind when our team discussed the new priorities for our Mind Settlers platform. For the last year or so, we have been experimenting with guides, marks, value tracking, tracks, and journeys. And we received encouraging feedback from our early users. At the same time, we noticed that these new ideas are not enough for most people to start using our platform. From a distance, innovative ideas are often interesting, but not convincing. Something else is needed for people to make the switch.
In the past, I used my smartphone and the Endomondo app to track my runs. The only thing I needed was the total time and distance. However, I recently switched to a Garmin smartwatch. It made the measurements easier because now I don’t need to run with a big, clunky telephone in my hands. And the battery is also much less likely to run out of juice during my runs. The Garmin watch fixed my pains.
The new features that did not convince me to switch from Endomondo to Garmin were the heart rate monitor, the steps counter, the elevation tracker, the training advice, the weather forecasts, the email notifications, etc. All of these were merely nice-to-haves. Sure, now that I have switched to another tool, I am using some of the new features. (I never knew my heart rate was so low when I was sleeping!) In fact, some of these features, such as the heart rate monitor, might grow on me and become indispensable. But they were not my reason for buying a smartwatch.
The best way to get someone to switch to another tool is to do the same job for them, but with less pain.
I’m sure that the first customers and users of automobiles just wanted a carriage that didn’t require a horse. That saved them a lot of trouble. Feeding, grooming, and stabling horses was a major pain that, for good reasons, is now left to hobbyists and horse lovers. Everyone else just hated horses and everything that came with it. People wanted no more horses with their carriages. They discovered and enjoyed all the other benefits of driving cars only later.
Likewise, our team realized that we need to focus more on enabling people to do their jobs with less pain. Yes, they are curious about all the innovative ideas we have in store for them, but they won’t be using them as long as we have not offered them an easier way of doing what they’ve always done before.