Page 61 - Free the Idea Monkey

FAILURE 101
Examples of not understanding the innovation formula (and sub-

sequent failures) are everywhere. A classic example of this concept is
TIVO. By now you know what a DVR does, but when TIVO launched
in the 1990s, nobody did.

TIVO filled a general need: people were busy and they simply
could not stop their lives to watch their favorite TV show. TIVO had
an amazing technology (an idea) that would solve this problem: digi-
tal video recording—your favorite shows captured while you carried
on with your life.

But since they were apparently not sure exactly how people
thought about lack of time, they were apparently unclear which of
the bevy of juicy benefits to talk about. You see, TIVO knew that they
not only helped you save time, they also:

• F ound and recorded your favorite shows
• Allowed you to transfer these shows to VCR tapes
• L et you play your shows in

slow motion or frame-by-frame
• Could suggest shows you

should be watching
• C ould let you watch live TV

while it recorded up to two
other different shows
• W ould help you record in high
def, low def, mid def ...
• C ould help you fly . . . kidding,
but by this point you’d think it should be able to
In hindsight, I am pretty sure that the most relevant benefit of
TIVO at the time was that it was ten times easier to use than a VCR—
no switching tapes, no full tapes, no tapes at all. But because TIVO
did not know the primary need they were fulfilling, they told people
about a myriad of features and functions that left many confused
and frozen in their VCR world.

46 CHANNELING THE MONKEY