Crossing the chasm

Geoffrey A. Moore · 1991

Between the enthusiasts and the mainstream there is a gap, because the two groups buy for incompatible reasons.

Its place in the frameworkTime Core›Market Timing

What it does

Early adopters buy a change and tolerate rough edges; the early majority buy a solved problem and take their evidence from people like themselves — who, by definition, have not bought yet. Moore’s recommendation is to attack one narrow segment completely enough to become its obvious choice, and only then widen.

Reach for it when: When a product has passionate early users and growth has stalled without anyone being able to say why.
Where it stops: Drawn from business technology in a particular era, and the segment-at-a-time prescription is easier to state than to execute. Not every category has a chasm.

Geoffrey A. Moore, Crossing the Chasm, HarperBusiness, 1991.

Why it sits at Market Timing

Whether now is the right moment: whether the market is ready, how long the opening lasts, what would tell you it is opening, and what being early or late actually costs.

A model is only useful when you reach for it at the right moment. This one answers a question that arises here — so it is filed here, and nowhere else. These are the working areas it serves:

Market readinessDiffusion-of-innovation research on adoption prerequisites, and the crossing-the-chasm distinction between early and mainstream demand.
The windowWork on strategic windows and the temporary nature of the conditions that create them.
Signals to watchEnvironmental-scanning practice and the leading-indicator selection problem.
Early and lateFirst-mover advantage research, which finds the advantage far less reliable and far more conditional than it is usually assumed to be.

All of Market Timing

What it touches elsewhere

Nothing in a business is decided on its own. A conclusion reached with this model at Market Timing lands in these other cores, whether or not anyone follows it there.

Market CoreWhether the opportunity exists is settled there; whether now is the moment is settled here.
Goal CoreTiming determines when an opportunity becomes a goal rather than remaining an observation.
Business CoreEntering early consumes cash for longer, which is a runway question before it is a strategy one.
Golden OpportunitiesA window opening is one of the ways a golden opportunity arrives.

Filed at the same place

These answer questions that arise at Market Timing too. Where they disagree with this one, the disagreement is the useful part.

Diffusion of innovationsNew things spread through a population in a predictable order, from a small group of the venturesome to a reluctant last.

Elsewhere in Time Core

These are other people’s models, named here so you can go to the source and use them properly. The Omnigoal is not affiliated with their authors and is not endorsed by them; nothing of theirs is reproduced here — no canvas, no diagram, no wording. Each is described in our own words, with the originator credited, because the framework is a place to put thinking, not a replacement for the people who did it. Model names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here only to refer to the work itself.

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