Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that if someone built a better mousetrap, the world would beat a path to their door. I used to believe that too, thinking a great product would naturally win on its own merits. But after reading John Gourville’s Harvard Business Review article “Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers,” I realized how often “better” simply isn’t enough.
Why people resist change
Most innovations fail not because they are bad ideas, but because people are wired to stay with what they know. Gourville draws on Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s concept of loss aversion, which shows that losing something we already have feels about twice as painful as gaining something new feels good.
When I think about times I hesitated to switch to a new app or workflow, this makes sense. Even when the new tool promised more features, I felt attached to the old one. We don’t just see a new product for what it offers. We also see what we might lose if we change, whether that is convenience, familiarity, or even a small sense of control.
The 9x effect
Gourville calls this imbalance the “9x Effect.” Consumers overvalue what they already use by a factor of three, while companies overvalue their new product by the same amount. That creates a nine-to-one gap between how sellers view their innovations and how buyers perceive them. What feels revolutionary to a product team can feel risky or unnecessary to customers.
Lessons for product managers
This gap has clear implications for anyone launching a new feature or product. Success is not just about making something better. It is about making change feel safe and worthwhile.
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Keep behavior familiar. The Toyota Prius worked because it did not change how people drove, only what powered the car.
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Make the improvement obvious. Andy Grove once said a product must be ten times better to overcome resistance. Small gains rarely convince people to move.
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Find fresh users. People who are not tied to an old routine are far more open to trying something new.
Designing for emotion, not logic
What struck me most in Gourville’s piece is that innovation is as much emotional as it is technical. People cling to what they know because it feels safe. When we understand that, we can design products that help people embrace change instead of fearing it.
Now, whenever I think about introducing something new, I will ask one question: does this make life easier without making users feel they are losing something they care about? That, to me, is the true test of innovation.
