Generational Products
Generational Products are products that evolve and endure for a multi-generational lifespan. They follow a predictable 7 generation progression on a path to becoming pervasive, enduring and ultimately, invisible.
Generational Products are radically different than the vast majority of products today. Where regular products fail, Generational Products excel.
Generational Products strive to eliminate user effort, deeply understand and anticipate user needs, automate extensively, reduce cognitive load, do work for the user and deliver massive value and utility.
Generational Products become irreplaceable. Said differently, Generational Products are so valuable that their customers and users cannot live without them.
Generational Products are like icebergs. The user sees and interacts with small subset of the product above the surface.
Below the surface, the product is doing a lot of heavy lifting to deliver value.
Most regular products look like the chart below. Users interact with the entire surface area of a product above the surface to get utility and value from the product and generally don’t interact with the stuff below the surface.
Generational Products reduce the surface area of the product, automate the items above/below the surface and progress it to a state of being Invisible. This enables the user to get full value from the product no minimal to no effort.
Product Generations Framework
The book establishes a new framework for product creators and companies of all sizes to build Generational Products that last. The framework includes the 7 generations that a Generational Product progresses through in its path to become invisible.
As Generational Products pass through the 7 generations, the product learns their users wants and needs deeply, develops the ability to solve for decisions without the user and eventually reduces to a form that is invisible.
The result is a new way of thinking about creating new products, new product strategies, generating whitespace opportunities for generational products and a practical framework that shows exactly how to build Generational Products.
The framework has been used a) to build our own products b) to build products for hundreds of startups to Fortune 1000s and c) to advise countless product creators, investors, futurists, policy makers and executives. A summary of each generation with examples from the book are included below with links to the Generational Product.
1st Generation: Reactive
First versions of most products are almost always Reactive. The user has to physically engage with the product in order to gain any utility. Whether that means picking it up or using a digital interface, the product can’t deliver any benefits without user involvement.
We use the term “reactive” because the product reacts to the user. If the user doesn’t interact with the product, it doesn’t get any utility from it. In the first generation, the user typically experiences a lot of friction. They have to do a significant amount of work – whether they’re entering contacts into a database or driving a car. The product has no intelligence or capacity to learn from past interactions. It’s the smallest divisible unit of functionality
The list of reactive products is nearly endless. From washing machines to software, nearly all the products we interact with are still reactive. Most products have the potential to evolve into the next generation, but that doesn’t mean that all of them should.
When we love using a product, enjoy the hands-on work it requires, or it performs a life-sustaining function, we don’t want to lose the control or interaction. It’s hard to imagine someone playing a video game that didn’t need their input.
But products that can and should move beyond a reactive state will gain loyal users and customers, while reducing waste: in time, effort, resources and money.
EXAMPLES
2nd Generation: Proactive
A product has shifted into the second generation when it begins to learn the user’s basic wants and needs. A Proactive product has learned what the user wants to do and actively takes that work away from the user.
For some products, that means learning the basic workflows that a user normally undertakes to get something done. Think about project management platforms. Every time you start a new project, you have to go through the same steps. A proactive version would begin to get ahead of the user. It would ask questions: “I notice that you always do X and Y at the start of a project. Do I have permission to set these things up for you?”
The user provides consent (or not) and the product completes the workflow tasks. It’s like an iceberg; there’s still considerable bulk above the surface, but now there’s also some automation happening below the surface.
The product is beginning to drive more of the user experience – which provides the same, if not more, utility with no additional work or friction.
Apple has introduced proactive features in iCal. For example, if iCal sees an airline ticket in your email inbox, it will ask for permission to add this flight to your calendar. And every time you grant it permission, the program begins to learn your behaviors. It connects a standard action to a digital artifact.
Proactive is the second generation, and it can create a standout product – even in the most crowded, established markets. Instead of a battle based on brand, features, service or price, better utility with less effort often immediately turns heads and opens wallets.
EXAMPLES
3rd Generation: Instructive
Here’s where things get even more interesting. Third generation products can become Instructive - it lets users know the full depth and width of the things that it can do automatically for them. The Nest thermostat – now Google Nest – became a tech-world darling after its 2010 launch, thanks to a sleek design and intuitive, lightly-automated features. It’s a great product, but if it reached the Instructive generation, it would do more than turn up the heat when you say “Google, make it warmer.”
An instructive product begins to do exactly what the term implies; it suggests and instructs, based on learned behaviors and aggregated data. The instructive Nest could model weather data in real time and advise changes specific to your city, neighborhood, and even your block. Thanks to millions of Nest products installed worldwide, it should have better weather prediction abilities than even the most detailed app.
At this stage, the product has learned enough to get ahead of user behavior. It’s beginning to lead. If your daughter is the first family member to arrive home each day, the Nest would anticipate her arrival and ensure a comfortable temperature, based on her timing, preferences, and daily activities. She doesn’t have to switch the thermostat out of energy-saving mode or set the heat to increase at 4 pm. The Nest would know that she doesn’t get home until 5 pm on Thursdays and she’s chilly after swim practice.
An Instructive product drives the experience. Users only need to intervene to correct a wrong assumption or update a new behavior. Utility goes up. Use of all of the product’s capabilities goes up. Effort and waste go down. Smiles get wider.
EXAMPLES
4th Generation: Predictive
By the fourth generation, the product begins to predict your needs. A Predictive product is one that has earned your trust in its acquired knowledge of what/how/why/when/where/who you need and want. It’s successfully completed tasks, worked in the background and been reliable. The relationship has deepened. The product has mastered doing things that require effort in the core user experience and starts to add adjacent tasks.
The word “prescient” also comes into play, which is defined as “having or showing knowledge of events before they take place.” As products drive more of the user experience and tackle more of the work, they become more prescient, meaning they show knowledge of certain events before they take place. A predictive product might need to ask for consent before it performs new activities, but, at this stage, the product takes a considerable amount of time and effort away from the user.
For example, a Google Nest user wouldn’t need to think about touching the controls. The product would manage the temperature and ensure it’s always perfect. A predictive version would consider how people, pets, the HVAC system, and environmental conditions affect temperature and humidity. The camera could identify shapes and movements, and predict room changes based on the number of people and what they’re doing.
It’s important to emphasize that products can never move into a later generation without gradually and consistently earning the user’s trust and achieving a deep understanding of exactly what the user needs and wants.
EXAMPLES
5th Generation: Prescriptive
A Prescriptive product understands its users inside out. By now, the product has a crystal clear sense of the 6W’s for all of a user’s needs and wants. If you want to perform a task – plus any adjacent activities – and it simply does the work for you. The product prompts any new steps before requesting consent. It has a nearly 360-degree view of your needs and preferences, and takes pre-emptive action.
Prescriptive products enable you to shut off your brain, get rid of cognitive load, worries and the thoughts of what needs to be done, that are normally associated with using many products. By this generation, the product has learned your needs and wants to sell that it can simply prescribe what should be done in most scenarios.
Autonomous or self-driving vehicles are prescriptive products. Looking back, the first cars (and most still on the road today) were reactive. Nothing happened until you started the engine and put the car in gear. The car couldn't brake, steer or accelerate without your input. Many new vehicles have predictive features like assisted lane changes and guided routing. As vehicles move toward full Level 5 autonomy, they will become prescriptive.
Tell a self-driving vehicle where you want to go and it does the rest. Or don’t tell it, give it access to your calendar and it’ll figure out where/when you need to go. It might ask if you prefer a different route to your destination, and you can grab the wheel and take over at any point, but you’ve essentially become a passenger.
EXAMPLES
6th Generation: Reductive
In the sixth generation, the product starts to simplify and reduce greatly. At this stage, the Reductive product knows exactly what it should be doing in all scenarios, use cases and edge cases and it doesn’t need to rely on the user to tell it what to do. Whether the product is physical or digital, the user now provides extremely minimal input to receive the promised utility. Consent is no longer required, although the user can always correct an error or change course.
Systems that run in the background are inherently reductive products. For example, the operating system that runs an elevator. Monitoring software that oversees an in-network or moderate-level home security is also reductive. These products only surface exceptions that require human intervention, such as a security breach or an equipment malfunction.
In the physical world, Michelin-starred restaurant service is reductive. At New York’s Per Se, for example, the staff deliver flawless, A+ service that’s nearly invisible – unless you request otherwise. Their “product” is also highly prescient. They know what you need before you ask for it, and often, before you know you need it.
A reductive product can not only spark user joy, high satisfaction and referral rates; it’s an incredible insurance policy against customer attrition. Reductive products usually have minimal to no churn. They work so beautifully, harmoniously, and with so little friction that users wouldn’t dream of switching to a competitor or abandoning the product.
EXAMPLES
7th Generation: Invisible
The seventh generation is post-product. An Invisible product is one that delivers value, utility and function without requiring the user to do anything. Utilities are the classic example – in part, because few other products have reached this state. In most of the world, electricity is invisible. You flip a switch or plug in the hair dryer and it simply works. There’s no hands-on effort (other than paying your bill). Think about it: how much time did you spend this week working on your electricity? Unless a toppled tree cut off your service for the afternoon, it’s always there, flowing in the background.
Of course, the ubiquitous nature of invisible products means we often take them for granted and engage in wasteful behavior. This is a dilemma for product owners and for all of us – especially as climate change begins to reshape our world.
Back to the products themselves. Airplane WiFi is a reactive product that could easily become invisible. The airline could recognize your device ID based on website and flight booking interactions. As soon as you board the plane and the WiFi network recognizes your device, the rest could happen automatically. You could also have an all-access pass that would perform an invisible handshake between your device and the network, provision your WiFi connection, and take you online.
Alternatively, the airline or WiFi provider could learn your purchase history and usage patterns and then select the best course of action. Instead, we spend 10-15 minutes trying – and often struggling – to connect to $10/hour WiFi. The price and value are sandwiched between a lot of unnecessary friction.
EXAMPLES
Share Your Examples
Please send us examples of Generational Products that you see or send us products that it’s not clear what generation it is. We’re updating the list often and appreciate your submissions.
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