In 1991, Geoffrey Moore wrote a book called Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers. In his book, Moore explains the abyss for the technology adoption curve. He says that among the early adopters (enthusiasts) and the early majority (pragmatics) there is an abyss that many products can’t cross. This happens because the pragmatics need good references for buying a new product and the enthusiasts usually are not the best reference. Hence the difficulty of some products for crossing this abyss.
The abyss described by Moore shows one out of two ways possible for the software product:
- It is not going to cross the abyss: the company can’t get its product to go beyond the enthusiasts and, consequently, will not have clients to guarantee its survival. This is one of the reasons that many startups close their doors prematurely.
- Mature: your product is going to work and the company will eventually make to the top of the S-curve, and will decelerate until some other product comes up to replace yours.
Read more about the strategies for crossing the abyss on this amazing book: Product management, delight your customer with your software.
