Familiarity First
Photo by Chris Yang on Unsplash
We are drawn to the new. What’s innovative, special, different — but new means change and change takes effort. If we aim to create something people can easily consume, we need to not only consider our ‘innovation’ but also what should stay unchanged.
“The most innovative new products (that succeed) are 95% familiar and 5% retraining.” — Scott Belsky
Pulling the future into the now is tantalizing, but if we’re not careful, we can create a chasm too wide to cross. Most people don’t enjoy making leaps — they much prefer keeping one foot firmly planted on stable ground as they extend the other gingerly into the void. As product people, we should recognize this and maintain a bit of comfort and familiarity in our products — providing a safe place from which our users can explore the future.
Take Nest. Nest is a breakthrough product, but it’s still a thermostat. Your house gets too hot or too cold and you adjust the temperature. Yes, it’s beautiful, but it’s also familiar. Imagine if Nest decided to only deliver their auto-magic AI goodness via an app, cause ya know, apps are the future. Would that have been as successful?
Tesla didn’t reinvent the steering wheel or even the overall shape of the automobile. The model S or 3, on the outside, look a lot like well, other cars. The power plant changed, but no one had to relearn how to drive a car to buy a Tesla. What was special about Tesla required almost no change in the day to day experience of driving.
Apple reinvented the phone, dropping the physical keyboard, but they didn’t get rid of it completely! The iPhone had a digital keyboard, but a keyboard nonetheless. Apple didn’t force us all to input everything in voice or learn some crazy new input methods like Palm’s Graffiti. We could walk up and use it, even if it wasn’t as easy initially as a physical keyboard — it struck the right balance between the new and familiar.
“Product innovation isn’t about new products that solve new problems. Product innovation is about new products that solve existing problems better than they’re currently solved.” — Joshua Porter
Be mindful of what you change and what you keep the same — behavior change is hard. Consider that balance carefully. Often the most powerful features aren’t even front and center in the experience. You don’t have to change everything to be useful or better.
How far are you making your future customers leap? If they are struggling to adapt to something new you’ve created, you just might have the balance off — keep innovation second, and familiarity first.
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