Voices » Scott Anthony » The Wonders of Good Enough
Scott Anthony Innovation Insights RSS Feed
The Wonders of Good Enough
5:13 PM Monday May 26, 2008
The New York Times had a great article on Sunday about the success of Pure Digital Technologies "Flip Video" camcorder. The article's basic message: Pure Digital has created a big market by embracing the principle of "good enough."
The Flip Video won't win any awards for its breathtaking design, or the quality of images it captures. The camera is simple, easy to use, and relatively inexpensive. It costs $100 for a camera with 30 minutes of capacity and $150 for a camera with 60 minutes of capacity. The device connects easily with a home computer, allowing seamless video transfer.
Pure Digital has sold a million Flip Videos over the past year. Clearly, users that are uploading videos to YouTube or emailing short video clips to friends and family are willing to trade off picture quality for an unobtrusive, affordable device.
In a perfect world, companies would introduce pitch-perfect products that were easy to use and affordable. The reality is that there often is a tradeoff between basic performance, ease of use, and price.
Established companies typically favor sacrificing ease of use and price in the name of performance. They fear the very term "good enough," because they think sacrificing raw performance will render their products inferior.
Remember, though, that quality is relative. It is always worth asking: What would happen if you intentionally lowered raw performance in the name of simplicity, convenience, accessibility, or affordability? What new markets could you serve? What new consumption could you enable?
Almost always, embracing "good enough" can open the door to new opportunities.
As an aside, the Flip Video is Pure Digital's second act--back in 2005 I panned its first camcorder that functioned like a disposable camera, meaning it had to be dropped off in a CVS pharmacy or equivalent to have its images processed. My colleague Renee Hopkins Callahan was more on the ball, praising Pure Digital's embrace of "good enough" back in March.
It's a good thing Pure Digital kept at it, as it now seems to have a big success on its hand.
People who read this also read:
Sign up for the Weekly Hotlist, a weekly email roundup featuring the top posts from HarvardBusiness.org and HBR.org.
Never miss a new post from your favorite blogger again with the HarvardBusiness.org Daily Alert email. The Alert delivers the latest blog posts from HarvardBusiness.org and HBR.org directly to your inbox every morning at 8:00 AM ET.
Trackbacks
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2323
No trackbacks have been made to this entry.
Posting Guidelines
We hope the conversations that take place on HarvardBusiness.org will be energetic, constructive, free-wheeling, and provocative. To make sure we all stay on-topic, all posts will be reviewed by our editors and may be edited for clarity, length, and relevance.
We ask that you adhere to the following guidelines.
- No selling of products or services. Let's keep this an ad-free zone.
- No ad hominem attacks. These are conversations in which we debate ideas. Criticize ideas, not the people behind them.
- No multimedia. If you want us to know about outside sources, please point to them, Don't paste them in.
The editors
Scott Anthony
Scott D. Anthony is the president of Innosight, an innovation consulting and investing company with offices in Massachusetts, Singapore, and India. He has consulted to Fortune 500 and start-up companies in a wide range of industries. During 2005–2006 he spearheaded a yearlong project to help the newspaper industry grapple with industry transformation (Newspaper Next).
Anthony is the lead author on The Innovator’s Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work (Harvard Business School Press, 2008). He previously coauthored (with Harvard professor Clayton Christensen) Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change (Harvard Business School Press, 2004).
ADVERTISEMENT
-
1
Michael Jackson and the Zombieconomy Umair Haque
-
2
How Michael Jackson Became a Brand Icon John Quelch
-
3
Debunking Social Media Myths David Armano
-
4
A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture Peter Bregman
-
5
Great Communicators Are Great Explainers John Baldoni
-
1
Debunking Social Media Myths David Armano
-
2
Michael Jackson and the Zombieconomy Umair Haque
-
3
How Michael Jackson Became a Brand Icon John Quelch
-
4
How to Identify Your Employees' Hidden Talents Steven DeMaio
-
5
Why Microsoft Had to Destroy Word Peter Merholz
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
Stay Connected
Browse Our Store
Productive Business Dialogue (Simulation)
This simulation will help you learn how to craft conversations that are fact based, minimize defensiveness, and draw out the best thinking from everyone involved.
Measuring Marketing Performance
In many organizations, marketing exists far from the executive suite and the boardroom. Learn how to improve the link between high level corporate strategy and the marketing function.
Voices Topics
- Advertising
- Apple
- Branding
- Career planning
- Change management
- China
- Coaching
- Communication
- Competition
- Conflict
- Corporate social responsibility
- Crisis management
- Current Interactive Case Study
- Customers
- Decision making
- Delegation
- Design
- Disruptive innovation
- Economy
- Election 2008
- Employee retention
- Entrepreneurship
- Ethics
- Execution
- Finance
- Financial crisis
- Gender
- General Electric
- Generational issues
- Getting buy-in
- Giving feedback
- Global business
- Green business
- Hiring
- Human resources
- India
- Information & technology
- Innovation
- Internet
- IT management
- Knowledge management
- Leadership
- Leadership development
- Leadership transitions
- Management 2.0
- Management Innovation in Action
- Managing people
- Managing teams
- Managing uncertainty
- Managing up
- Managing yourself
- Marketing
- Microsoft
- Motivation
- Negotiating
- Networking
- Operations
- Organizational culture
- Personal effectiveness
- Politics
- Presentations
- Procter & Gamble
- Product development
- Productivity
- Project management
- Public relations
- Recession
- Risk management
- Sales
- Social enterprise
- Social media
- Starbucks
- Strategic planning
- Strategy
- Succession planning
- Talent management
- Technology
- The Future of Management
- The Future of Management Podcast
- The Leading Edge podcast
- Time management
- Toolkit
- Tools
- Video blog
- Wal-mart
ADVERTISEMENT
Comments
That's a good point, and in a way, this is what has made Nintendo's Wii so successful. Granted, they didn't sacrifice quality per se, but they completely abdicated on the graphics arms race (which for many had become ubiquitous with video game quality) in the face of plenty of questions of "good-enough." The result is something that appeals to nearly everyone and is simple, fun, and affordable.
- Posted by Chuck
May 28, 2008 10:08 AM
Great point. In this developed world, as kevin kelly points out, we hyper-consume so much, that some of us, exceed the belongings of Henry the VIII, King of all England, died in 1547.
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2004/11/the_number_of_s.php
So I think, the 'good enough' principle works very well.
However, Quality is not an acceptable tradeoff in the developing world.
http://blog.amusecorp.com/index.html/178
-Vasu
- Posted by Vasu Srinivasan
May 28, 2008 7:06 PM
that's quite true, wayback 2006 my husband bought a very hi-tech expensive cellphone, which has not been used so often because of its complex features. After that experience he is not anymore attractive to buy the same kind.
A good quality is very essential and consumers are wiling to pay no matter how expensive it is. But there are so many wise consumers now a days that they consider so much the product in terms of convenience, "user friendly" and affordability.
Sometimes it pays to sacrifice raw performance by lowering it in the name of accessability and convenience.
- Posted by Mariafe M. Plaza
May 28, 2008 8:38 PM
Is it about accessibility to a market or meeting a customer need of "making my life easier"? I believe that products that help to simplify life activities via technology will be the winners.
As someone mentioned the Nintendo's Wii, I believe its success is based on its easy of use vs. other complex consoles. Nintendo built a larger market beyond just the gamers, e.g grandparents.
- Posted by Adrian
May 29, 2008 7:40 PM
Hi Scott --
I'm still amazed at what I think of as one of the classic "good enough" examples -- camera phones. When they first came out, I honestly thought it was one of the dumbest ideas possible -- who would want these crummy photos? Obviously my 35mm camera took far better pictures.
Of course, what they did was open an entirely new use for photography -- rather than preserving memories, this product turned photography into a means of enhancing our instant communication.
Not only is "good enough" a path to innovation, but our often- instinctive rejection of it can be one of an organization's greatest barriers.
Best,
Tammy
- Posted by Tammy Erickson
May 31, 2008 7:15 AM