Innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards; the five different customer segments, each related to a different stage of the product adoption curve. Understanding these five product adoption phases can drastically help your SaaS business with its Product-Led Growth goals.
A definition of the product adoption curveÂ
A breakdown of the five stages to the product adoption curve and how they can influence your product lifecycle
How to cross the chasm from early adopters to early majority
Weâll pepper this article with actionable tips on how to use in-product experiences to increase user activation and sustain business growth throughout the entire adoption curve of your SaaS product.
What is product adoption curve?
The product adoption curve is the visual representation of when different customer segments are most likely to adopt your software.Â
When your product marketing team understands your product adoption curve, they can adjust product messaging and the timing and placement of that messaging to score higher product adoption and product retention rates.Â
The concept of the product adoption curve comes from Everett M. Rogers and his book Diffusion of Innovations, where he explains how different types of people adopt new technology at different times in its lifecycle.Â
Rogersâ adoption model identified five stages to technology adoption and the five segments of people that fall into each stage:Â
Innovators (2.5%)
Early adopters (13.5%)
Early majority (34%)
Late majority (34%)
Laggards (16%)
This model has been widely accepted by product managers and startup founders alike to explain different stages of product adoption. Represented visually, the product adoption curve looks like this:
5 customer segments essential for the product adoption curve
Despite there clearly being a peak in product adoption rates, a SaaS business canât jump straight into the deep end and win the early majority. Each stage of the product adoption curve is essential and mandatory.Â
Only your product team can dictate how long you spend in each stage and how you make the most of these user segments.
Knowing that your SaaS needs to go through each of these stages, letâs explore them, why theyâre important, how you can profit from them, and what product marketing teams need to do to maximize their opportunities.
Customer segment #1: Innovators
The innovators, the risk-takers, the enthusiasts. These tech aficionados are often the smallest user base of your product across its lifecycle. However, that doesnât mean theyâre any less important! This is where it all starts.
These users come fast, and they move fast. They thrive off being among the first in the adoption process. Being first is often a stronger motivational driver than having a problem they need solving or a job-to-be-done in your product. Therefore, they are not a sign youâve found product-market fit. Â
Typically, these users donât care for bugs or clunky UX. But they do care about costs, so thereâs a high chance youâll need to meet them at what theyâre willing to spendâor offer a freemium planâif you want to activate them within your product in the first place.
How to make the most of innovators for your product lifecycle Â
For all of their supposed flaws, innovators are exceptionally useful. They are essentially your Beta testers. Innovators donât care about a specific job-to-be-done; they care about trying new things and being among the first to do so.Â
These are the trailblazers. Theyâll give your MVP a run for its moneyâif anyâand theyâll be there to provide you with essential product feedback. The good, the bad, the downright ugly, youâll hear it all from this customer segment. Take it all on board, show them youâre actively making changes, and you could hold on to some of your âfounding usersâ for years to come.
đŚ Pro tip: You can use in-app Microsurveys to collect quantifiable feedback from innovators while they are interacting with your product and capture their thoughts, opinions, and suggestions right then and there.
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Customer segment #2: Early adopters
The thought-leaders, problem solvers, industry visionaries. Early adopters come in slightly larger numbers than the innovators. They also tend to have a genuine need for your product, driven out of a tired way of doing their job-to-be-done. Thereâs a high chance theyâve been looking for a solution like yours for a while. Theyâre excited to finally get their hands on it.Â
Early adopters are okay with a few glitches along the way, as anything is better than what they had. Theyâre also okay with paying for the product. Early adopters are typically financial decision-makers within their businesses. However, theyâre expecting to get their moneyâs worth.Â
Early adopters need faster time-to-value; they want their âaha!â moment yesterday, and they expect more personalized support solutions than you can probably handle. But, thatâs all okay, because of what they can bring to your product growth table.Â
How to make the most of early adopters for your product lifecycle
Early adopters use your product because they have a real need for the solution you provide. Thereâs a lot you can learn from how they discover your product, the language they use to discuss your product, and the journey they take within your product.Â
Thereâs also a lot to be said for segmenting this user base going on their âaha!â moment and reason for churn. Understanding all of the above can help you with product positioning, product messaging, and user onboarding.
 đŚ Pro tip: Use product walkthroughs to give early adopters a personalized experience that enables a rapid time-to-value with your product. This will help you win more customers quicker, fight churn better, and cross the chasm faster.
*Crossing the chasm đŚ
Customer segment #3: Early majority
The pragmatists, the cautious researchers. The early majority is a tough customer segment to reach. We made crossing the chasm look easy. Itâs not, but itâs well worth it.Â
The early majority is the largest and most promising customer segment within your product lifecycle. Itâs the time your SaaS can truly start seeing an increase in MRR. Once youâve crossed the chasm, youâve essentially found a product-market fit.Â
Youâre building a user base that has a job-to-be-done. These users have faith that your product is the one to do their job andâafter devoted researchâhave decided to choose your product.Â
The early majority donât want to see any bugs. They come rife with pain points, and theyâre putting all their eggs in your basket.Â
The early majority like to take their time. They seek out referralsâwhich is tricky as they run in circles with other early majority usersânot early adopters. Which begs the questionâŚÂ
How do you cross the chasm? Going from early adopters to the early majority
Perhaps youâre familiar with Geoffrey Mooreâs book Crossing the Chasm. In its third edition, Moore goes into a great amount of detail on how you can cross the chasm from early adopters to early majority and successfully bring your product to the masses.Â
However, if you donât have time to read the book or simply want a few bite-sized hacks, here are three ways you can cross the chasm.Â
Focus on case studies and testimonials
Early majority users need evidence that your product can do what they need it to do. They need to know that itâs been tried and tested before them and that they can start using it effortlessly from day one.Â
Adapt your product messagingÂ
One of the most crucial things youâll need to do to sell to this segment is to adapt your product messaging. Youâre no longer talking to innovators or risk-takers. Nor are you talking to lead decision-makers. Youâre now trying to attract those that will be using your product every dayâand may need to win buy-in to get it onboard. Your product messaging needs to speak clearly to this new segment.Â
Run customer interviews and feedback opportunities
The only way youâre going to adapt your product messaging or build case studies is by talking to your users. Hopefully, youâve set up a communication culture from day one. If this is the case, your users should be more than happy to provide you with insightful feedback to help build a bridge and cross the chasm.
đŚ Pro tip: Use a combination of different in-product survey types to collect user feedback. The quantitative and qualitative data you can collect can help you with further product development direction. Or you can use the insights to craft compelling in-product messaging and testimonials using a digital adoption platform.
Thatâs it! Youâve crossed the chasm! Youâve made it, right? Not quite. Youâve got the late majority and laggards to work with next So, how can your early majority further support your product growth?
How to make the most of the early majority for your product lifecycle
The early majority are a valuable resource for understanding if your product and features perform as you expected. How these users interact with your product can give you valuable insights in adapting your user onboarding strategies, so future users can find their âaha!â moment even quicker.Â
The actions or support requests your early majority user base takes within your app can also help scale your self-serve learning strategy.Â
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Customer segment #4: Late majority
The early majority and the late majority customer segments are typically equal in size, making your late majority equally important in achieving greater MRR and ARR. The late majority are often more reluctant to change. They only adopt your platform for fear of missing out or losing their competitive edge.Â
Typically this segment has a lower budget than their predecessors, which means theyâre more conservative with their spending and even slower to say yes than the early majority of customers.Â
Once again, your product messaging will need to shift. The good thing is, this segment already knows what your product does, theyâre familiar with your brand, they know they could benefit from your solution. However, theyâre still not signed up.Â
Meaning, youâll need to reposition your product marketing tactics to be more personalized to business use cases, specific jobs-to-be-done, business sectors. Essentially itâs in-depth persona-based marketing at this stage.Â
Your segmented efforts will likely be costly as youâll need to invest in smart tools to help you execute niche campaigns. However, by now, your SaaS should be in a comfortable enough position to get to work.Â
At this product adoption curve stage, consider using:Â
Retargeting campaignsÂ
PPC advertising
Organic SEO tactics
Email marketing campaignsÂ
Data-scraping chatbots
Customer segment #5: Laggards
The skepticists, resistant to change, uncomfortable with technology. The laggards certainly donât sound appealing, and thatâs for good reason. These are the users whoâve adopted your product because everyone else has, but they still donât believe itâs necessary.Â
These users are stubborn, stuck in their ways, and they often adopt your product because they donât have a choice. Despite laggards still being a relatively large customer segment, theyâre often considered bad news in terms of growth. If youâve reached laggards, it means youâve potentially saturated your market or you're losing it to someone thatâs doing it better.Â
If youâve identified your product lifecycle as selling to laggards, itâs likely time to think about building a new product or expanding the existing one with innovative features. What does all of your previous data tell you? What can you learn? How can you get back to the start, to those early innovators and early majority, with a new feature? Â
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Closing with an ideal product adoption rate
You can calculate your product adoption rate with the following equation.
Whatâs a good adoption rate to aim for? This will mostly depend on your industry and business type. How other SaaS products are performing? According to Mixpanelâs Product Benchmark Report, SaaS businesses saw an average of 3% growth in month-over-month new active users during 2019, while the best-in-class products saw user growth of 13% per month.   Â
Weâll leave you with that. Remember, thereâs something to be learned from every stage of your product adoption curveâthereâs something to be earned from it too. If you see your SaaS nearing the end of it, jump to the drawing board and see where you can use your learnings to innovate new features and reach new audiences.Â
In doing so, youâll build product adoption and product retention rates. Youâll also build customer lifetime value, make data-driven product experiments, and create a new product adoption curve to drive MRR all over again.
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