Laggards:
Meanwhile laggards hold out to the bitter end. They are people who see a high risk in
adopting a particular product or behaviour. Some of them are so worried they stay awake
all night, tossing and turning, thinking up arguments against it. And don’t forget they
might be right! It’s possible they are not really not laggards at all, but innovators of
ideas that are so new they challenge your paradigms! In the early stages, where you are
focusing on early adopters, you can probably ignore the views of laggards, but when you
come to work with late majorities you’ll need to address their criticisms, because late
majorities share many of their fears.
How to work with laggards:
• Give them high levels of personal control over when, where, how and whether they do
the new behaviour.
• Maximise their familiarity with new products or behaviours. Let them see exactly
how other laggards have successfully adopted the innovation.
Each of these adopter personalities is very different. It’s vital to know which one you are addressing at a given time. And no, you usually can’t address them all at once. Why? Because products and behaviours only mature gradually. The exception is when you have customized quite different products or behaviours for each group. Weight Watchers
is an example. It has a traditional caloriecounting
method that suits early adopters,
a “points value” method that suits early
majorities, and a “no count” system for
everyone else.