Sticky, not gimmicky. Your road to a better product.
Cheetos-flavored lip balm — orange lips smelling like Cheetos all day, moisturized to protect us from the harsh winter.
Smart scroll — bobbing our heads up and down in front of our phones, to enable hands-free scrolling of today’s news.
Gimmicks evoke contradictory feelings. They attract and repel, at the same time. We’re filled with amazement and disdain, in equal parts.
In a world with 3-second attention spans, digital gimmicks are trotted out for competitive differentiation, to grab human attention on the glowing rectangular screens that we clutch in our hands. That auto-playing of an advertisement video that you never asked for. Gimmick. That phone with a built-in projector that you’re never going to watch movies on. Gimmick.
Physical gimmicks make the ordinary feel less ordinary. As seasons change, so do supermarkets. Aisles bulge with imaginative displays, limited editions of snacks, and just-in-time-for-your-fill-in-the-blanks-holiday reimagined specials. The Valentine’s Day pink-and-red peanut-butter cups. The Terry’s Chocolate Orange that you “tap and unwrap” to break apart wedges of orange-flavored chocolate. The colorful Kit-Kats in 300 unholy flavors, including churro, tiramisu, key lime pie, and yes, fruity cereal. Gimmick, gimmick, gimmick.
Ungimmicking your product.
How do you spot a gimmick?
It’s how long it takes for the novelty to wear off.
Gimmicks are flash.
Products are substance.
Gimmicks generate attention.
Products generate engagement.
Gimmicks have short-lived relevance.
Products have long-lived relevance.
Gimmicks form external trappings.
Products form internal foundations.
Gimmicks are dispensable embellishment.
Products are necessary functionality.
Gimmicks drive impulse buys.
Products drive thoughtful value.
Gimmicks produce short-lived hits of joy.
Products deliver sustained joy.
Gimmicks deliver single-use success.
Products deliver repeat-use success.
A product is something that users return to, something that is a necessary and valuable part of their lives, and something that impacts how they live or how well they live.
Users use useful things — on repeat.
For a true product, stickiness is the North star.
People don’t buy products. They buy solutions to their problems.
Building a product is that simple.
Just start with the people and their problems.
- Put yourself in the mind and the shoes of your target user.
- Think of the problems they face in their user journey today.
- Order the problems by the degree of pain they cause the user today.
- Order your solutions to these problems by their effectiveness.
- Identify the impact of your solutions, i.e., which solutions will make the most measurable difference to the user?
- Identify the practicality of your solutions, i.e., can you build them with what you have, and how quickly?
- Identify the scalability of your solutions, i.e., can you mass-produce these solutions for all users?
- Identify the affordability of your solutions, i.e., will your target user be able to pay for them?
- Identify the joy of your solutions, i.e., how will your solution bring joy, in addition to alleviating pain?
- Identify the stickiness of your solutions, i.e., how will you keep users coming back?
- Identify what success looks like for the user.
Once you’ve sunk your teeth into a juicy problem, and you’ve figured out a solution that is effective, practical, scalable, affordable, and sticky, you’re on the right road.
Gimmicks put the brand first. Products put the user first.
If you start with the user, you will never lose your way.
