The Washington Post had an article a few weeks ago that I think is worth a second read. The post is from Kevin Maney, author of the upcoming book “Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t”. Kevin discusses how good product leaders make the right trade-offs:
Products or services that offer just so-so fidelity and so-so convenience fall into a no-man’s-land of customer apathy that I call the “fidelity belly.” That’s where music CDs and newspapers find themselves today. The most successful products and services tend to be either high in fidelity or high in convenience — one or the other, but not both.
The term “fidelity belly” is really sticking with me for some reason. You must avoid the fidelity belly at all costs!
——-UPDATE———
See The Fidelity Belly (part 2) for more on the belly.
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