I got my “Quora Weekly Digest” in my inbox tonight and saw this question: “What are the key differences between “Normals” (normal mainstream users) and tech early adopters?”
There are some interesting answers (very consumer Internet focused) but I can’t help editorializing:
As an entrepreneur, you shouldn’t care about “tech early adopters”. You need to focus on *your* early adopters. Yes, these will often be explorers by nature, but they will also be passionate about your area. You will have something they are really missing in their lives, even if they don’t know it yet. There is also a group of early adopters that the Quora responders all seem to have completely forgotten about: the sufferers.
If you are solving a pain point, your early adopters are also those who feel the pain so acutely that they’ll try even your unproven solution on the off-chance you might help.
Not every successful company is solving a defined pain, but even for consumer Web companies, tech early adopters aren’t enough. The energy of Scoble & Co can be good for press and buzz, but really you need a growing base of early “keepers”. By that I mean the folks who will stick around after the initial “ooh shiny” moment is gone, and continue to use your app and spread the word once those who explore for exploring’s sake have moved on.
This early retention is the beginnings of product-market fit, but only the beginnings. You want growth rate and retention to stay high and pretty consistent. Otherwise, you are not there yet. You may need to rethink your solution, customer, channel or business model, and start running more experiments.