Understanding Slower Adopters

any community will include laggards--a few people extremely resistant to change.

The early majority is the large group of people ready to adopt an innovation when it appears to be taking off, and when they witness the advantages enjoyed by early adopters. Positive experiences by early adopters can encourage the early majority to come on board.

The late majority consists of the more conservative members of the group who are only prepared to change when they can see a large population already successfully using the innovation. You can best reach them by promoting positive experiences reported earlier adopters.

Finally, any community will include laggards--a few people extremely resistant to change. A lot of effort will be required to convince these people, and you may decide to leave them be if 100 percent adoption is not essential to your innovation.

ACTION POINT: Use the early adopters positive experience to help win over the majority of late comers.