Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers

by Geoffrey A. Moore

Now, if the current model of high-tech market development were not flawed, this might work, or at least work better or more often. But in fact, the revenue development that actually occurs looks more like a staircase than a hockey stick. That is, there is an initial period of rapid revenue growth, representing the development of the early market, followed by a period of slow to no growth (the chasm period), followed by a second phase of rapid growth, representing return on one’s initial mainstream market development. This staircase can continue indefinitely, with the flat periods representing slower growth due to transitioning into adjacent mainstream segments, and the rapid rises representing the ability to capitalize on those efforts.