Hidden in Plain Sight: How to Create Extraordinary Products for Tomorrow's Customers

technology amplifies behavior.

authenticity isn’t necessarily what counts—just the appearance of it.

This sort of “contrasting rationality,” whereby differences in cultural values lead to divergent decision-making processes, can come into play in just about any cross-cultural interaction, which makes it incredibly important to cultivate a sixth sense: the sense of “why.”

In the context of our recurring theme—technology amplifies existing behavior—the only thing we can truly anticipate is that, eventually, a piece of technology will be adopted by those people who can use it to amplify their behavior the most.

My work—as well as this book—is about scratching beneath the surface to find reality in bits and pieces, and to use those bits and pieces to see the world in a richer, more textured way. In turn, we can use that newfound perspective to forge better relationships, solve some very tricky problems, make more useful and desirable things, and generally

about touchpoints—the times and places where users would likely be interacting with the product or service we’re designing—and triggers that would prompt users to act in one way or another during those times and in those places.

Every new technology put out on the market is introduced with assertions and assumptions about how it will be used, but it’s only through actual experience that “use” is defined, shaped by any number of factors including context, personality, motivation, and income.

It’s also why people prefer subscriptions to piecemeal payments and why they pay restaurant checks with credit cards even when they have enough cash to cover (the ethereal depletion of funds carries a lower mental transaction cost than the physical depletion).

As Coke’s leaders found when they misguidedly introduced New Coke, consumers will decide what’s authentic and what’s not. Just ask the makers of Life Savers soda, Colgate kitchen entrees, Ben-Gay aspirin, Bic underwear, or Smith & Wesson mountain bikes—all real offerings that flopped, despite their pedigrees.

It’s a process of deconstruction and reconstruction, and it can lead to some wild, fun, and most likely impractical ideas. But it can also lead to some that seem like common sense—the kinds of ideas that might be way off your radar and yet make you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”