I have never seen a better way to illustrate the technology adoption lifecycle than the silly video of people dancing below.
It's just over 3 minutes, but worth the view. Feel free to jump around every 30 seconds or so to save time. Here's a short synopsis:
- "Crazy Guy #1" awkwardly dances alone at a music festival
- 19 seconds later, "Also-Crazy Guy #2" joins in
- 60 seconds later, there are 16 dancers
- After 2:30 there is a 100+ person dance party
The technology adoption lifecycle aka Rogers curve aka the Crossing the Chasm chart:
Here are some of my notes (best effort here folks) on how the people participating in the dance party match up to the adoption lifecycle.
|
Innovators |
Guys 1 & 2 |
0:01-0:54 |
No fear of going it alone |
|
Early Adopters |
Dancers 3-18 |
0:55-1:25 |
See the potential and aren't afraid to step forward |
|
Early Majority |
Dancers 19-60 |
1:26-2:00 |
Feel that something is starting to happen & want to be part of it |
|
Late Majority |
Dancers 61-100 |
2:01-2:30 |
Notice that something is happening & don't want to miss out |
|
Laggards
|
Dancers 101-120+ |
2:31-3:00 |
Literally arriving as the song is ending |
Note: Seth Godin beat me to the post on this one. But he didn't use charts! Seth argues that:
...it's guy #3 who made it a movement.
But what do you think? Does "the Chasm" notion still hold up?