Crossing the Chasm

The best ideas stand the test of time. And clearly the ideas offered by Geoffrey Moore in his book Crossing the Chasm have achieved that distinction.

I was reminded of this, when one of our employees forwarded me an article that Geoffrey had shared on LinkedIn about the 3rd edition of Crossing the Chasm. That post led me to a series of detailed posts that he shared recently – all of which are focused on the newly updated version of Crossing the Chasm.

What follows are some points that are worth re-quoting in some detail:

What’s New?

Consumer IT
The Four Gears Model for consumer focused tech (vs. B2B) – Acquire, Engage, Convert, Enlist
Cloud Computing, which inherently shrinks the size of the chasm between Early Adopters and Pragmatists.
Business Models that are driven by Consumption Economics
Distribution Partners who have less impact than they once had – given the web provides a universal delivery model.

What hasn’t changed about Crossing the Chasm:

The Technology Adoption Lifecycle
The need to offer a Whole Product
Business Ecosystems
Word of Mouth (Digital or Otherwise) References and their Impact on Pragmatists
The Chasm
Pragmatists in Pain and the Associated Beachhead Strategy that’s needed to reach them.

More detail on the posts can be found on LinkedIn, here and here.