Adrian Slywotzky, Karl Weber [Archive.org URL]

It’s a funny thing about demand: There’s often a huge gap between what people buy and what they truly want and need. That gap is revealed by the Hassle Map—and that gap is where the opportunity to create huge new demand is hiding. There are various kinds of Hassle Maps. Some Hassle Maps are lists of the steps involved in a process, often including too many activities that are needlessly complicated or whose value and purpose are unclear. Filling out your income tax return might be an example.

Other Hassle Maps chart the people, organizations, suppliers, and sources a customer must engage to complete a given task, often leading to confusion, waste, excess choice, and information overload—renovating a kitchen, for instance.

And still others graph the trade-offs between consumer needs that are equally desirable yet apparently mutually exclusive: In one arena after another, customers are told they can have low cost or quality, convenience or variety, personal service or speed—but never both.

Like this content? Why not share it?