« An excellent rant | Main | Numerical Illustration of US Electoral System Flaws »
November 17, 2004
Why you have to keep the geeks happy
or "Making good use of the bellwether nerd"
A lot of companies, especially technology-based companies, start out with a product (a gadget, a service, whatever) that is technically innovative. It does something new or vastly improves upon the way others have done it before. They get some success under their belt and grow. Then, middle age hits -- the company starts playing it safe, rationalizing more and more incremental improvements by saying that it needs to take care of its mainstream customers (likely the majority of its customer base), usually at the expense of those early adopters (the geeks and nerds).
That strategy is a fallacy. It is likely to lead to disaster. Why? Because innovation is what drives corporate profits over the long term, and those early adopters who brought the company its early success are the ones it needs to continually strive to impress. I'm convinced that those geeks, nerds, "enthusiasts," or "influencers," by whatever label you want to stick on them, are the company's best indicator of its future health. Sure, they don't represent an accurate picture of the bulk of the company's customers, but that's not what they're for.
Using nerds to ascertain how happy most of today's customers are with today's products is simply foolish. Geeks and nerds are best used to evaluate the prospective success of future products, since that's what they live for. And, after all, history is littered with examples of everyone eventually using what the geeks adopted years before. Why does this happen? Because geeks digest every nuance of a product, they know what works best. And because they know what works best, they often make the best decisions about what to buy and what to avoid, not only for themselves, but also for their family, friends, and employers.
Companies should view their geekiest customers as the proverbial "canaries in a coalmine," since the nerds are the first to truly understand the full potential (good or bad) of a new technology or product. If your nerd customers are dissatisfied, the future probably doesn't look very bright for your firm. Want to know why? Go ask a nerd or ten...they'll be more than happy to tell you what's on their minds.
Posted by Craig in Technology
Comments
Craig --
This is an insightful post, but not as true as you might expect.
Geeks are a hugely important indicator, and I am always a champion of keeping them happy.
But you just need to look at Windows to know that geeks are not the ultimate predictor of where the masses will be headed.
If geeks were so ultimately influential - we'd all be running BeOS by now.
But.... I will admit that they are WAY more important to keep happy then most companies give them credit for.
- chris
Posted by: Chris Dunphy at November 24, 2004 6:15 PM