Alan Cooper: "Best of Market Trumps First to Market"

Alan Cooper, widely respected in the field of Interaction Design and related practices kicked off Interaction 08 with a simple but profound message.

"Best of market trumps first to market"

Alan laid out his case thoughtfully and practically.  We are living in a post industrial wold.  Knowledge workers such as programmers live in conflict with the business hierarchies who manage them.  Programmers don't respect authority—they respect credibility.  And so from Alan's perspective—Interaction Designers who can "think in blueprints" possess that credibility.  So I'm going to make the leap that what's being said here is that Interaction Designers form a significant "link" that make "best of market" possible.

All sounds good.  I believe in the concept of "best to market"—you only have to look at the U.S. and our predisposition to invent—only to have other nations take what was invented and provide "best to market" products and experiences.  Henry Ford knows this concept well—Ford's invention of the mass production automobile was "first to market"—yet you only need look at the automotive market place to see how that story demonstrated that "best of market" wins in the long run.

Or does it?

My take on Cooper's talk—is that while I agree wholeheartedly with the "best of market" scenario, I see another story being told when it comes to social applications.  Can You Tube, Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, etc. be put into the "first to market" category?  It's debatable.  But most of the social applications to seem to rely on community influenced iterative design that often came after a "first to market" reality.  Social applications may be destined to follow what Cooper is advocating for which is an emphasis on craft and rigor.  The theory is simple—better craft leads to better business models.

Now the one example outside of social applications that I can think of that defies this perspective is Tivo.  In my opinion Tivo was as superior DVR that combined both "first to market" and "best to market".  But even with these advantages, Tivo stumbled.

Big topic here—and I certainly don't have the answers.  But I believe that watching what happens to the Tivo's, You Tubes and Yahoo!'s of the world are will help provide clues as we continue to navigate through the space.

Comments

[David Burn]

Programmers don't respect authority—they respect credibility.

In other words, they're just like copywriters and art directors.

[Ryan Karpeles]

I have to side with the "best of market" theory. Not in 100% of the cases, but in the majority of them.

A big part of it has to do with customer behavior and switching costs.

In other words, customers are constantly seeking out the best solution. We read reviews, comparison shop, try things out, etc. We want to make a great selection, not just settle for the one that's been around the longest. And the Internet makes all of this incredibly easier.

If we can switch, and should switch - we will. The barriers to doing so are shrinking every day.

[Ryan Freitas]

Thank you for the recap of Alan's keynote - and for your own thoughtful take on what he had to say. Twitter started blowing up this morning with friends at the conference who were not pleased with the tone of the keynote.

From your description, I think I understand what they were objecting to. Wish I could be there for the discussion.

[Tom Asacker]

"Best of market trumps first to market"

Interesting. And you're right David. It is a big question. But in order to answer it, we need to define "trumps." What defines success and in whose eyes? Founders? Employees? Customers? Shareholders? Citizens?

[John Lane]

I notice your list of social apps was lacking a few names...like Friendster and MySpace. Does the fact they are missing speak to that community influenced iterative process? And does it start to answer the "first to market" vs "best of market" in social apps? I venture a guess that Twitter won't be the best for long (if it can be considered that now).

As for Tivo's problem. In my opinion it has little to do with being first to market (it was) or best in market (I can understand your argument that it is). Tivo continues to be on the outside of, essentially, a closed market. Are you a cable subscriber? You can easily get an HD DVR from the same company that's at your house, hooking up your cable to begin with. Same for Dish Network subscribers. Why would the average person go out of their way to get a Tivo when something else is decent and owns the "most obvious in market" category?

[Troy]

Unfortunately, this is 101 for MBAs. Christensen's three books (Innovator's Dilemma, Innovator's Solution, and Seeing What's Next), all of which enjoy wide distribution and influence, lay this out in detail. Basically, the research is pretty clear that you let some hump go first and set off the mines before you become a "fast follower" and dominate the market. No offense, but sometimes we need to look outside the often-limited world of "interaction design"--and maybe look a bit further afield for a keynote speech. This isn't even a reach. I also suggest Ulwick's What Customers Want, as Amazon does. BTW, I'm not an MBA. But I find it essential to have a strong grasp of the stuff they're reading and thinking about.

[Michael Mckenzie > spaceprojekt]

Best..First...Whats all this chatter? The theory put here suggests that there is only one market for any widget and the obvious is just the opposite.
We buy EXPERIENCES and we buy those Experiences 'whenever' and in our frantic effort to sell/buy the max we often duplicate the Experience.(Face,Twit,Space et all)
We must also consider here that 'first' is often the creator, innovator, inventor, choicemaker who is crucial to our survival, and that 'last' doesn't exist without that wonderful Artist who is always 'First'

[Michael Mckenzie > spaceprojekt]

And further re John above...Why don't we all just cool are heels, put our thumb in our bum and our minds in neutral...and wait for some HUMP to show us the way??
Thats a classic example of the 'fast thin think' that built this house of cards we refer to as 'business' and why we now face such a catastrophic climate future.

[Frank Gruger]

I think Coop's point was not that we should all wait around with our thumb in our bum. More so, resist the urge to be first. I'm sure apple was working on the iPod before the iRiver launched. Had Apple rushed to beat the iRiver to market, we wouldn't have the quality product we have today. You sacrifice quality to be first.