The utility of the technology is put front and center, with an expectation that buyers will find a use for it either now or later. In hindsight, the self-balancing was gimmicky — it looked cool but offered little real utility.
Furthermore, it was dangerous for people who could not already balance on a scooter or bicycle. The big battery was unnecessary as people tend to scoot to places where they can recharge. Few people, if any, need to zoom around on a scooter all day. Finally, the large form factor made the Segway impossible for sidewalks or streets, too large to bring to office buildings, and an eyesore when stored at home.
The price was entirely out of sync with the utility the Segway offered. E-scooters, in contrast, are an example of what Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne call value innovation , which is the cornerstone of blue ocean strategy. Value innovation is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost. E-scooters are a good example of value innovation: an offering that solves real-world problems in a way that makes the competition irrelevant.
Learning from the mistakes of the Segway, the makers of e-scooters took the idea of a self-powered mobility device and turned it into a successful business. E-scooters require users to balance on two wheels, but their low center of gravity makes balancing easy. Finally, e-scooters are small enough to be easily stored in a house or apartment, carried in the trunk of a car, or brought onto public transport.
The buyer utility map is a blue ocean tool to assess whether potential buyers — customers, but more importantly, noncustomers — find adequate utility in a proposed product or service. Buyer utility maps visually show whether a product or service unlocks substantive buyer value and differentiation.
The map consists of two dimensions. Across the top is the buyer experience cycle, the steps a would-be buyer encounters through the lifecycle of a product or service.
The level of press and TV exposure was astounding. So what went wrong? What lessons about the success or failure of innovations can we learn? You found a better way to do something: a new business process, a new audience to market to, a new business idea How do you effectively articulate the promise of your idea and its potential impact?
Learn the basics of innovation in this self-paced, online course. Most successful innovations involve some degree of iteration, experimentation, openness and collaboration.
They need an eco-system to support them. They target users who need the benefits they offer. A radical invention with ample backing still needs to gain market acceptance. It is an uphill path and that path proved too steep for the Segway. He is the author of over 20 books which have sold over 2 million copies in total. He speaks, writes and leads workshops on creativity, innovation and lateral thinking. He also facilitates innovation camps for major corporate clients.
For more information visit www. Search for:. Expectations were too high. The Segway was described as the future of transport. As an innovation it was said to be on a par with the PC or the internet. Inevitably it could not live up to this level of hype. The key point, as Bezos accurately predicted, was: "Are people going to be allowed to use it?
The Segway worked as advertised, but it was awkward to use. It was small enough to ride inside a building or into an elevator, but at pounds, it was too heavy to carry up stairs. It also required the rider to be "that guy" and it was almost always a guy , rolling his electric scooter around the lobby and corridors of his office building. And then you need to park it. It's hard enough to get cities to embrace the bicycle, something that's been around for a century and a half, and to design their streets around it.
And, though many bikers look ridiculous in their skin-tight racing outfits, at least they're getting a workout. The Segway was perhaps the laziest mode of transportation around. I got called lazy more times than I could count.
Like the troubled Google Glass , another supposedly "revolutionary" product, the Segway invited mockery, not awe. President Bush, center, momentarily loses his balance while riding a segway personal transporter in Kennebunkport, Maine, Thursday, June 12, Steve Jobs warned Kamen the Segway's image could be ruined by a single rider falling off and hurting themselves. Three high profile incidents soon followed: In , President George W. Bush fell off a Segway during a vacation at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
The fall was caught by press photographers and widely reported.
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