The Product Vision blog

What would be “revolutionary”?

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

At Apple, everything is “revolutionary”

Apple launched its App Store for the Mac today. The press release announcing that the store was open for business includes this bit of puffery: “The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac…”

Revolutionary. Hmmm, where have I heard that word before? Oh yeah, in just about every Apple press release since 1999. – Ed Bott, ZDNet

When I first read this article I thought, “Ha ha yeah, puffery indeed.”

But soon after, I realized that this isn’t mere puffery.  When Apple uses “revolutionary” it’s not just PR, but a key Apple secret hiding in plain sight.

When Apple creates products, they are asking themselves every time “Is what we are doing revolutionary? What would be revolutionary? Okay, let’s do that.”

• A revolutionary music player would let you have 1000 songs in your pocket.
• A revolutionary battery would tell you how much charge it has
• A revolutionary adapter cord could be yanked out intentionally or accidentally without throwing your laptop on the floor
• A revolutionary laptop would hold enough of a charge that you wouldn’t need to replace the battery and could make it lighter than ever
• A revolutionary movie editing program would…
• A revolutionary phone would…
• A revolutionary tablet computer would…
• A revolutionary retail store experience would…
• A revolutionary product package would…

This is important.  Apple is one of the very few companies that hits it out of the ballpark again and again and again.  For the largest and smallest things, Apple is asking, “What would be ‘revolutionary’?”  They are starting by thinking through the radical innovation and working backwards to figure out what it will take to get there.

Anyone else who doesn’t think this way — and that is almost everyone except the Google, Amazon and few others — is anchored firmly to terra firma by the incremental requests of current customers who can only possibly know to ask for what they know they need today.  They cannot envision the revolutionary solution.

Being revolutionary is easier said than done. It’s higher risk: higher cost with the expectation of radically higher return. You have to accept expensive failures (Apple has had plenty).  You have to mold your organization around the product you need to create, rather than creating what you are already good at creating.  You have to fend off the pragmatists and naysayers who don’t think achieving a revolution is possible or worthwhile.  You have to know your customers and their deep needs far better than they do.  And you have to have the organizational competence to do it from top to bottom.  That includes the vision to generate and curate revolutionary possibilities, which is somewhat rare but can be nurtured with practice.

A good place to start, today, is by getting your best and brightest away from their regular environment and asking, “What would be ‘revolutionary’?”

What’s next for Netflix?

Friday, January 7th, 2011 | commentary, predictions | No Comments

The shift to streamed programming has been so successful that dropping discs off at the mailbox already feels like an anachronism.

And it’s spurred plenty of streaming competitors.  Vudu and Amazon are offering recent release movies streaming (at a premium price).  Today you can only get that stuff from Netflix in hardcopy (i.e. physical DVDs).

Netflix can’t sit still for this.

Their x-disc-at-a-time concept, while brilliant in the era of shipping atoms, is quickly becoming obsolete.  When you are streaming you don’t just have 4 movies to pick from at once, you have thousands.

So I’d expect Netflix or its competitors, to shortly:

• have a premium streaming service, and broaden their business model to permit more recent movies to be rented.  I’d expect something like, “Unlimited streaming of main library, up to x premium movies per month for $y dollars.” with a range of values for x and y.  This way it’s seen as an expansion of what they offer rather than taking something away.  They collect the higher fees to offset the higher licensing cost.  They continue to get recurring revenue.  And customers still get that happy Netflix feeling of abundance.  You don’t have to deliberate about making and paying for the rental each time.  It’s prepaid.  Just watch and enjoy.

• stream everything.  The moment a produced show has finished being broadcast, make it available on streaming.  Why not?  There’s a need for it, a demand for it and there’s nothing technically stopping it from being real.  When there is a clear gap like this, it’s a safe bet that it will be filled.
• Stream premium live events like concerts, sports events, operas, symphonies, plays, speeches, special-interest events and count it against the premium quota.  Over-the-air broadcasts have a role (it’s the cheapest way to distribute the bits), but it should keep diminishing in favor of specialized content that each viewer cares about.
• Expand internationally like crazy to be the world’s provider of streaming content.  The underlying customer needs are universal.  It’s another obvious gap that not every country has Netflix.

Let’s see how long it takes these predictions to pan out!