The article “ Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers” by John Gourville discusses the relationship between product managers who are eager to introduce new and innovative products to the market, and the consumers’ hesitancy towards innovation, especially when pushed too fast or too hard, even if said product could lead to huge improvements in the consumers’ lives. This psychological phenomena is an essential part of product strategy and understanding the psychology behind it can inform product managers on the optimal “speed” they should go to increases chances of adoption for their products.
One of the main reasons behind this phenomenon, as explored in this article, is loss aversion. People are often biased regarding changes, and are more sensitive to loss than gain, meaning that the cost of switching products or technologies always seems greater than they actually are. Therefore, though the benefits of the newer product maybe the same as or even exceed the losses from the old one, the customers are likely to perceive the loss to be higher. Because of this, it is crucial for a product manager to minimize the perceived loss as much as possible. Doing so will reduce the loss users believe they will experience, making it more convincing for them to try or switch to new products, increasing likelihood of adoption. An example of this is the case of airpods pro, where Apple has worked hard to show that the new airpods pros can perform just as well as normal airpods in all functions in question, but also come with added benefits, such as noise canceling. This way, the users’ fear of losing the familiar, provided by normal airpods, were minimized and mostly eliminated, making it easier for them accept the new airpods pro get switch to them.
The airpods pro example also relates to another concept discussed in the article, which is having smaller (behavioral) changes without crucially altering the function or use of the product. The difference between two products, if too drastic, can make users hesitate in adopting the product, since the value of the entirely new function is not yet proved. However, if we’re building on a functionality/use of a product that is already widely used and loved, the new behavioral addition will be an added bonus to convince the users to upgrade, rather than get adjusted to an entirely new concept. Those are who are willing to adopt the new and innovative products faster than the rest are likely to make good initial targets for product managers to gather insights from, and could help with the widespread adoption of the products by the market.
Therefore, Gourville’s puts forward that understanding the users’ psyche around loss aversion, committing to smaller behavioral changes with less adjustment requirements and focusing on those who can adapt earlier than the rest can all go a long way towards increasing the chances of adoption for a new and innovative product product managers might want to push on their user base.
