Trends Report

What QWERTY Can Teach You About Product Strategy

Path Dependence Matters, But Digital Disruption Matters More

January 11th, 2012
J. P. Gownder, Vice President, Principal Analyst
J. P. Gownder Vice President, Principal Analyst
With contributors:
James McQuivey, PhD , Andia Vokshi

Summary

Product strategists looking to the past to guide future decisions often learn the wrong lessons about history. They point to the QWERTY keyboard or the success of Blu-ray to show that path dependence and ecosystem effects are the most important aspects in establishing market dominance. But they're wrong, and aiming for those targets will distract them from hitting the real mark that will matter in the future: digital disruption. In this report, we show product strategists how to understand the real lessons to be learned from product history and help them plan to embrace and exploit digital disruptions — preventing them from spinning their strategy wheels while nimbler competitors race ahead.

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