Google Wave: How to launch a new product
Google are no strangers to launching new products. Since going public in 2004 they’ve launched more than 10 major new web tools, many of them requiring users to edge ever so slightly away from their understanding of how the web should work.
Wave is a perfect example of a product launch that requires users to rethink their approach to a deeply ingrained task – sending an email.
So how do you convince your audience there’s a better way to handle ‘email’?
1) Virally, with a Gmail-style inner circle of chosen ones who can selectively pass on the power to their contacts. Not only do people feel special and therefore more proactive about delving into the features, but it helps limit the load that’s put on the system.
2) By demonstration, in this case by publishing a whole host of tutorials and developer insight videos to their YouTube platform.
3) With a welcome Wave to all newly-registered Wavers explaining why it’s so great.
This is plenty to ease the fanatics in, but will it be enough to instigate a major shift among the masses?
My initial observations, having registered and passed on my invitations, are that there are two main user groups:
The fanatics, who would have done just about anything to get an invite even before previewing a single feature.
The norms, who may have heard a whisper about this latest craze but who are happy with email and can’t see what all the fuss is about.
This second group may be harder to convince than Google have anticipated, and explains why a lot of people stare blankly at the interface on initial login and then never return.
Perhaps one fundamental obstacle is that, although people are used to signing-up for new systems, they expect to be emailed about activity, such as a new message being sent to them. If this were the case with Wave the value of the product would be lost.
The norms typically haven’t sought out YouTube tutorials, haven’t been chatting on the forums, and don’t care so much about being brought into the fold. And to add another fundamental obstacle, when they login to see this mind-blowing alternative to email, they’re presented with an intuitive interface reminiscent of… email.
So, Google have ticked all the boxes; they’ve generated a buzz, and followed standard procedure to create a highly usable product.
What more could they do? A guided tour on initial login? An automatic top tip that can be turned off?
There are undoubtedly more options that could be explored, and probably have been. The uptake of Wave is something we’ll all be monitoring over the coming months and years.
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