applying maslow’s hierarchy of needs to technology or “545 slides in 30 minutes, about people”...
TRANSCRIPT
ApplyingMaslow’s Hierarchy of
Needsto Technology
or
“545 slides in 30 minutes, about people”(no, seriously)
Rolf [email protected]
Disruptive Innovator for eBay, Inc.Wednesday, 25 July 2007
January
yesterday
Web 2.0++
[not the same]
doubt
HAICAN HAS STDIO?VISIBLE "HAI WORLD!“
KTHXBYE
Disruptive Innovator
and my first task in being disruptive,
everybody getsGUM.
and to give you a little sample,tonight I’ll be talking about:
people,
pelicans,
power,
horses,
dishwashers,
France,
badgers,
drinking beer,
hooking up,
and maybe software.
(actually, the badgers are just a joke)
this is in fact,a badger-freepresentation.
and because there areno badgers,
let’s start with pelicans instead.
What is the Model?
year 600 ad
we have a problem with
every year, hundreds of thousands
of birds migrate throughNorth and South America
creating the“Pacific Flyway”
Alaska to Patagonia
primary problem:
not very much…
and with no water,
no habitat
and no fish.
which is important,
200+ lbs./year
luckily,
Colorado River
big, fickle, unstoppable
as it empties into the Pacific Ocean,
carries sediment from the
western plains
this sediment builds up
occasionally, blocksits exit to the sea
causing it totemporarilyflow north
into, the“Salton Sink”
this has happened many times
700150018401849185218591891
but in the past,it evaporated
until 1905
canal from Colorado River to Imperial
Valley
new agricultural needs
burst
again emptied into the Salton Sink
creating the“Salton Sea”
so,
not long after…
in 1908it was noted
nesting:comorants, white pelicans,
other species.
now being fed by agricultural run-off,
Salton Seadidn’t evaporate
1930
established as aWildlife Refuge
has become a habitatfor 400+ species.
in a way,
this sudden explosion of waterfowl in the Salton
Sea
not unlike the explosion of traffic to sites like:
the
Salton Sea was an experiment
showing us birds’ twoprimary needs
and what would happen if their needs
were met.
sand and cactus
+ water
=
and translated tolingua franca,
this discovery could be summarized as:
OMG, BIRDZ!!
but how are pelicanslike people?
the alteration in thebirds’ migratory path
completely driven by their fundamental
goals
to seek suitable,hospitable habitat.
knowing these goalshelps us predict
their future behaviour.
humans have similar goals
which we can understandby looking at our actions,
becauseour actions reflect
these goals.
Tom Standage
200 years ago
Claude & IgnaceChappe
built a network
transmitting
military & governmental information
their system
optical telegraph
(556 nodes)
(4,800 kilometres)
swinging arms
“telegraph”
“far writer”
fast!
indeed,
fast-er
s l o w
2words
perminute.
the concept behindoptical telegraphy
laid the groundwork
Samuel Morse... .- -- ..- . .-.. / -- --- .-. ... .
initially used byrailway lines & government
also commercialized
private entrepreneurs
speculated
business people would be willing to
pay
for thisrapid
communication
so they launched
pay-per-wordservices
[only] businesses
high costper message
nonetheless:
expanded
interesting thing happened:
some people
free,
un-metered access:
the operators.
young,
talented,
very bored.
when you don’t have to pay…
jokes
stories
friends,court,marry.
we start to see a progression of human
priorities:
(1) support your military
(11) make a dollar
(111) “chat”
we see the same pattern,
with telegraph’s successor:
radio
rich history in thestory of radio,
but we’ll start at:
1944
Motorola
“Handie Talkie”
infantry field radio
after the war,
business saw the value of wireless
connectivity
commercialized the technology
built acellular network
1984
Motorola“DynaTAC”
8000X
“the brick”
pitched at the business market,
pretty much itsonly market,
with a $4000 price tag
21 years later…
Motorola
RAZR
in pink,commonly sported by
adolescent girls
for almost entirelysocial purposes.
if we trace the priorities again,
1. fear money initially funds a
technology
2. business money expands the
network
3. the network is adopted for social
needs
and what’s the arc in 60 years?
1944
you could use your field radio
to…
2007
in simpler terms,
the order ofthe market’s priorities
seem to be:
1. safety
2. prosperity
3. socialization.
luckily, we’ve seen this pattern before
“Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”
Abraham Maslow
his paper:“A Theory of Human
Motivation”
1943
model
describes theneeds, wants, desires
of individuals.
the model itself:
“levels” or tiers
survival
security
belonging
esteem
enlightenment.
lower levels supersede upper
levels
for example:
you wouldn’t want to
be socialbelonging
security losing your job
similarly,
you probably wouldn’t care
security drop your wallet
survival chased by wolves
the tiered system enforces an “order” to priorities.
markets as a whole,
follow this same hierarchy.
if we look at a market
market == collection of individuals
each individuals’ actions
combine to create
“market pressure”
markets actlike the individuals
in that market.
this helps explain the past 20 years
and maybethe next 20.
if we look at the
Internet
first, something everybodycan agree upon
Web 0.0 (ARPANET) defense
protects everybody’s basest level of needs
now that we all feel like we’ll survive,
“ensure our future, make a
buck”
commerceWeb 1.0
Web 1.0 focused on selling things,
because things are easy to count
and therefore easy to prove profit-
margins on.
lastly
“individual needs”
social beingsWeb 2.0
any guy can put patterns in a pyramid,
so let us get someconcrete examples
with business impact.
remember, these priorities are innate to all humans,
so these motivations apply both online and offline.
highly successful businesses
carefully factor these needs
for example:
(here’s the audience participation time)
what thing?
all sell,
not related to their core business?
hot dogs.
why?
because they want you to participate
commerceshop
but as a human you still need to
fulfil
survival eat
two at once:
survival eatcommerceshop
“profit!”
“rounding error”
consideringhuman needs
increases business
by enabling their users
to focus ontheir product.
we can see this also in the Starbucks in
Safeway
and eBay offering a payment processing
engine, PayPal.
now that we’veunderstand the model
let’s look at:
How to usethis model
(for fun and profit)
going back to MySpace for a
second,
the model helps us frame some
“miraculous” things we’ve seen.
while at the Web 2.0 Expo,I overheard:
“MySpace--- and who would have
guessed that would take off?”
their target is morefocused towards thetop of the pyramid
esteem
enlightenment ideals
expression
belonging social beings
belonging
esteem
enlightenment
social beings
ideals
expression
be social
be myself
help others
now, for this certainportion of the population,
putting food on the tableand paying the mortgagearen’t the most important
things,
so they have a lot oftime and energy,
to focus on these two needs,
be social
be myselfMySpace sweet spot
we’re surprised that teens are drawn to a place where
they can:
listen to music
talk loudly
and express themselves without parental
supervision?
we had MySpace before,
but it was called“Tastee Freeze”
or the arcade,
or “down by the river”
or the hayloft.
even as adults,we seek places where we
can
talk loudly,listen to music,
and possibly act like a fool
we call this“the bar”
if you don’t believe in the possibilites of this business
model,
consider the“Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem”
since 1189.
if you want to,
we could also force software
into this pyramid
run (no seg faults!)
be useful
be pretty
it would be easy to assume that the take-away from
this is:
worry about being pretty after you’ve finished the functional
coding
[wrong]
and this is where it’s important to remember
where you live in the food chain.
as much asyou’d like tobelieve so,
your appis not the be-all and end-
allto your users’ needs
so don’t get stuck on the “functionality” level
and make one of those
hammer, pliers,
nail pullers multi-tool
in their lives,your app may be
about “being pretty”
after all, how much money to people spend
on couch pillows
which serve no discernible function value
whatsoever?
an example for the need for both brawn and
beauty:
Apple released the iPod in
October of 2001
when I already had aCreative Nomad II
and to methe iPod was missing things:
an FM radiovoice recorder
A/B repeatexpandable storage
a user-replaceable battery
(and still doesn’t have this functionality, BTW)
but we all know who haswon that game
because Apple focused on the interface rather than
the functionality
knowing that their product needed to fit into their
consumers’ lives as part of a total package
iLife, anyone?
a detail that always bothers me in the model
“entertainment” isn’t a strong theme in Maslow’s
hierarchy
yet definitelya driving force
in humans.
if you don’t believe me,let’s look at someprimetime shows:
“So You Think You Can Dance”
“America’s Next Best Thing”
“Don’t Forget The Lyrics”
“Big Brother 8”
some of the oldest forms of entertainment:
singing,dancing,magic,
and house arrest
to illustrate how this influences product:
(more audience participation)
(a show of hands)
who took a piece of gum,
knowing that there was a comic inside?
who took a piece of gum,
took a piece of gum because they wanted
some gum?
who took a piece of gum,
knowing that the gum is terrible, but you still
wanted to see the comic?
who took a piece of gum,
knowing that the gumAND the comic were
both terrible
but couldn’t help yourself because you wanted to
see the comic?
in the hierarchy of needs,
the gum is practically useless
but the combination ofa little gum,
and a little fun
is priceless.
this combo has been selling bad gum for
nearly 70 years.
so does that mean that I can create something successful by having a
gimmick?
yes, and no.
it means thatyour product is a more
careful balance
offeatures,
functionalityand fun
than you probablywant to believe.
also,if you’re going to try to pull
off a gimmick against so little value,
you’d better make sure that it’s your gimmick
because how many kinds of bad gum with bad
comics can the market support?
apparently,
one.
this also brings to mind:http://
uselessaccount.com
“change your password one thousand times a
day!”
which is fine,
but don’t go out and register:
account-of-no-value.biz
I’ve been talking about how it is important to consider the many levels of needs
with respect to your product,
and perhaps the most important needs to
consider
are the ones you think you aren’t even
considering,
because there is a danger of unknowingly having your customers’
time
shanghai’ed.
sometimes their time gets diverted somewhere
else
in the model,
as tiers increase,expendable resources
decrease
because total resourcesare finite.
illustration
ten below zero
eleven at night
$65
hotel: $55
dinner: $5
the movie channel: $10
survival
security
belonging
esteem
enlightenment
$55 + $5 for lodging and food
survival
security
belonging
esteem
enlightenment
all our money spent right here
the more energy our members waste in finding the basics,
such as
help
search
login
and “contact us”,
the less energy they have to actually enjoy
your product.
and if you don’t want them spending their precious time
there
make it so they neverneed to ask for help.
I should warn you,
the pyramid has strong influences that arenot to be ignored
at even the most fundamental product level
I’m not making this stuff up!
an example fromeBay’s own experience
“eBay Blogs”
we thought we were building:
esteem expressionbe myself
so let’s look at a typical blog entry from last
night:
“nighty nite all >*o*<sweet dreams my friends i have towork early so i prob wont see yas tomorrow morn. have a good night
”
>*o*<
and the“blog comments”
on that entry?
• good night
• SWEET DREAMS
• Nite - new banner - nice - sleep well dear - catch ya sometime tomorrow.
• Good night dd. Have a nice day at work tomorrow.
• Have a good night!
• Nite!
• Good Night
[not] eBay Blogs
eBay chat.
eBay chat.a very terrible
unfulfilled
belonging social beingsbe social
new tool?
my needs.
If all you have is a hammer,everything looks like a nail.
we gave them a screwdriver,
which is found to be apoor hammer
(but that’s not going to stop anybody from pounding nails
with it).
and because you can’t stop them,
use this as your most important product development tool.
you put it out on the market, but what are people actually
using it for?
ever heard ofAvon Skin-So-Soft?
an urban legend started that it was an effective mosquito
repellent
people were buying it in droves to protect themselves
yet,laboratory tests showed it
really didn’t work
so what did Avon do?
they launched:
Avon SKIN SO SOFT BUG GUARD PLUS
includes insect repellantand SPF 15 sunscreen
by paying attention to their customers’ needs, Avon was able to enter an entirely
new market
how does this apply to other products?
considerMySpace vs the “adult version” of
MySpace
AdultFriendFinder
we can look at the same pyramid
belonging
esteem
enlightenment
social beings
ideals
expression
be social
be myself
help others
but we also notice that there’s a new “goal” for this older
audience
once you get past a certain age,
there are more “needs”in your pyramid.
survival sex
be social
be myself
help others
a little sumthin’ sumthin
which has consistentlyput it in the
Top 20 most traffickedsites on the web.
this comes back to perhaps the most vital message in my
presentation:
make products that delight and empower your users.
your members will continue to be
humans
and human needsaren’t changing
so success will goto the products,
that fulfills themost needs,
with the leastamount of waste
waste =
“anything which doesn’t delight or empower your
users”
because anything else, you’re stealing
their time
you can only get by stealing for so long.
now that I’ve given yousome new tools,
lets sum this all upby applying some of them
New Ways of Looking at the
World
let’s attack the old“Linux on the
desktop”debate
there is a conception that Linux is a perfectly suitable
substitute for Microsoft windows
unfortunately that isentirely wrong,
and not of any fault to Linux,
but because the comparison is
framed wrong.
LOTD is a perfectly suitable operating system
but end users don’t buyoperating systems.
they buy software to make their computers useful to
them
and if they can re-use the skills
and software they already have,
alternatives pale in comparison.
Apple is approaching a similar problem with
“Apple on the Desktop”
and they’ve attacked this with their “Switch” ads.
they don’t focus on the fact that OSX is a “perfectly acceptable” operating
system,
they focus on the fact that Apple+OSX can help you get the exact same things
done
(better)
right now,
LOTD strategy to me seems like it is focusing on
cheaper (free)
and more open(free, as in liberty)
but “free” isn’t a draw when every PC already comes with Windows
installed
and “open” isn’t a draw
if “open” means
less functionalto the end user
consider this:
every digital camera includes software for
Windows,but not Linux
but, but, but gPhoto handles most digital
cameras!
yes,but it doesn’t come
in the box with the camera,does it?
and there’s no“works with gPhoto”
logo on the box.
now let’s attack“the internet”.
we should stop being fascinated
that our phones and cars and toilets are ‘internet
enabled’
just like you’d never say,
OMG, UR DISHWASHER RUNZ on
ELECTR1CITY??!!!
the most successful of us
will stop looking at the internet as Web
X.Y,
but as a tool tohelp us cope
with our inability
to store, process, retrieve and
transmit massive amounts of information
with other humansnot near me.
another lesson from the pyramid,
what about the social aspect of what you’re
doing?
imagine reading a book,but you couldn’t tell your
friends about it
or playing solitaire without someone looking over your shoulder telling
you“you’re doing it wrong”
the pyramid shows us that we are
fundamentally social creatures
and where it makes sense,
interweaving that social nature can dramatically add to our experience
so here’s the tricky part:
building a product is like building a house
water and electricity are useful things to nearly
everybody
the skill lies in knowing what rooms
need what
and the last one(which is really more of a
warning)
it is important totemper hype
with clear thinking,
there will be many ill-conceived uses of recently
“discovered” aspects of computing
on the web, I’m talking about discoveries such as:
AJAXsocial networking
community filteringbadgeswidgets
RSSviral apps
just because something works in
one place,doesn’t mean it has a use every place
consider an advertisement from 1909
during a similar “2.0” time of history:
FOR NERVOUS DISEASES of all kinds in men and women, to reach the nerve centers for the cure of all nervous disorders… For weakness in men and women, personal exhaustion bringing back lost strength and power, over brain work, vitality, impotency, rheumatism, lame back, railroad back, insomnia, melancholia, kidney disorder, Bright's disease, dyspepsia, disorders of the liver, poor circulation, weak heart action and almost every known disease and weakness. The constant soothing alternating electric current is ever at work touching the weak spots, building up the system, stimulating the circulation.
ALL THAT ELECTRICITY WILL DO FOR YOU WILL BE RECEIVED!
why do we get so excited about things?
what we can do
what we can’t do
inflections in expectation
inflections in abilityto fulfill expectations
?
the bubble
does this mean that every new is crap?
no, but who’s telling you it is cool?
marketers and pundits?
you know all about“usability studies”
but what about“feasibility studies”?
I’m sure your product is technically feasible
but will it survive in the market?
Starbucks knows how to setup coffee shops
but before theyplunk one down
they study the streets, the demographics, the foot traffic, and their
location to competitors.
they do this because installing a business is a costly experiment,
so they need it to stick around for awhile.
ask yourself,
am I investing in something that will last
in the long run?
luckily, there is an easy way to think of these
things:
“does this make me laugh or help me out?”
building tools, services and experiences
which empower and delightyour users and employees
not only makes sense,
it’s good for business.
I believe:
in “life, liberty andthe pursuit of happiness…”
and together,
we can bringthat spirit
to everyone.
The End.
Thank you to:Lawrence Lessig, for the presentation style
Dick Hardt, for the inspirationInkscape, for a wonderful vector graphics
toolthe Disruptive Innovation Teamand you, (yes you), for coming
Slide #548
