The Art of Innovation: It's More Than Ok to Build Vitamins (not just Cures)
- Chris Burgess
- Apr 4
- 7 min read
Conventional wisdom in innovation dictates: start with a problem. Identify a user pain point, understand its nuances through research, prototype potential solutions, validate with your audience, and iteratively build a 'cure' – your problem-solving product. This makes your product easier to sell because its purpose is explicit.
But what if your innovation doesn’t solve a recognised problem? What if, instead of fixing what’s broken, you’re enhancing what already works? This is the realm of the “vitamin” product - a category that thrives not by addressing urgent pain points, but by illuminating hidden opportunities for improvement.
To succeed, vitamins must tap into three core human desires that users rarely articulate but deeply feel:
1) Suboptimal experiences:
“Good enough” isn’t good enough. People crave tools that make routines easier, faster, or more enjoyable.
Example: Self-service kiosks didn’t “solve” restaurant ordering, but they turned waiting in line into a frictionless, customisable experience.
2) Untapped potential:
People often have desires they haven’t articulated or even recognised. Vitamins unlock these unrecognised aspirations by reimagining what’s possible.
Example: Instead of just a movie screen, the Apple Vision Pro tries to build a private and immersive world, offering an escape from everyday life at home. You can even share this experience with other Vision Pro users to replicate going to social cinema experience.
3) Missed opportunities for delight:
While functionality is essential, it doesn't always spark enthusiasm. Vitamin products seek to elevate the ordinary by adding elements of joy, surprise, or engagement, making even mundane tasks feel more worthwhile.
Example: Duolingo’s playful streaks and TikTok’s creative tools transform learning and content consumption into rituals people look forward to, not chores they endure.
These are the 'problems' that vitamin products aim to solve – not by fixing what's broken, but by elevating what already exists. The first question is, how do you build and subsequently sell a successful vitamin? Getting the innovators and early adopters is a challenge but easy enough, the most important question is - how do you get early majority i.e., pragmatists to adopt your vitamin?
This is where it helps if your vitamin builds on an existing way of doing things, rather than replacing that existing method.
Why Evolution Beats Revolution
Revolutionary products dazzle early adopters but often fail to cross into the mainstream. The early majority craves reliability and simplicity i.e., tools that slot into existing routines. Grammarly refined writing by integrating into email and docs; WhatsApp evolved mobile communication with free messaging and multimedia sharing. Both enhanced habits rather than upending them.
By contrast, Google Glass and the Segway demanded radical behavioural change. While disruption can succeed, it carries higher risk. Evolutionary products scale predictably by improving familiar experiences, not reinventing them.
Strategies for Building Vitamin Products
Identify Existing Behaviours:
Tap into pre-existing user habits and desires to make adoption smoother.
Example: Sleep Cycle tapped into the desire for better sleep and understanding sleep patterns, using technology to provide insights and enhance this nightly routine.
Enhance, Don’t Replace:
Focus on improving upon existing tools and workflows rather than demanding a complete overhaul.
Example: Notion unified spreadsheets, docs, and tasks into a flexible workspace without eliminating any existing categories.
Prioritise Seamless Integration:
Make your "vitamin" easy to incorporate into daily life, minimising disruption and friction.
Example: Calm’s meditation sessions fit into morning routines; complex smart home devices faltered by requiring setup headaches.
Iterate Relentlessly:
Marketing Vitamin Products
Marketing "vitamin" products effectively requires a nuanced approach, as you're not selling a solution to a pressing problem, but rather an enhancement to an already functioning experience. This means moving away from a problem-solving mindset and towards a strategy that emphasises the value of enhancement and the creation of desirability.
Here are key strategies:
Ease Adoption: Start with what's familiar
Show Value: Demonstrate what's gained
Clearly showcase the tangible improvements and long-term benefits your "vitamin" provides.
Example: Fitbit showed the long-term health benefits of step-tracking.
Build Confidence: Leverage social proof
Leverage the enthusiasm of early adopters to drive wider adoption.
Example: Early adopters championed Snapchat's disappearing photos.
Inspire Desire: Focus on enhanced possibilities
Focus on the potential of your "vitamin" to unlock new experiences, increase efficiency, or bring more joy to everyday life.
Example: Headspace positioned meditation as essential for managing modern stress.
Getting Pragmatists to Adopt Your Vitamin
It's crucial to demonstrate tangible value and minimise perceived risk for the early majority.
Focus on Tangible Benefits, Not Just Features:
Quantify the "Better": Show how your vitamin compounds benefits over time (e.g., “Save 5 hours monthly” vs. “more efficient”).
Highlight Seamless Integration with Existing Workflows: Pragmatists are wary of disruption. Emphasise how your "vitamin" slots easily into their current routines without requiring significant changes in behaviour or learning new systems. Show them it's an upgrade, not an overhaul.
Focus on Reliability and Stability: This group values proven solutions. Highlight the robustness and dependability of your product. Social proof, testimonials from similar users, and a track record of consistent performance are crucial.
Leverage Social Proof and Trusted Sources:
Show, Don't Just Tell: Pragmatists are influenced by what their peers are doing. Showcase testimonials and case studies from individuals or businesses they can relate to. Highlight early adopters who have seen tangible improvements.
Seek Endorsements from Trusted Authorities: If possible, get your "vitamin" reviewed or recommended by industry experts or influencers that the early majority trusts. Their validation carries significant weight.
Build a Community of Practical Users: Foster a community where early adopters can share their positive experiences and practical use cases. This peer-to-peer validation can be incredibly persuasive.
Reduce Perceived Risk:
Offer Generous Trials or Money-Back Guarantees: This alleviates the fear of investing in something that might not deliver on its promise. It gives pragmatists a low-stakes way to experience the benefits firsthand.
Provide Excellent Support and Onboarding: Ensure a smooth and hassle-free experience from the start. Clear documentation, responsive support, and easy onboarding minimise friction and build confidence.
Iterate Based on Pragmatic Feedback: Actively solicit feedback from your early majority users and demonstrate that you're listening and making improvements based on their practical needs and suggestions.
Frame it as a Smart, Low-Risk Upgrade:
Position it as the "Next Logical Step": Instead of presenting your "vitamin" as a radical departure, frame it as the natural evolution of what your target audience is already doing. For example, position it as a "next-gen" version of familiar tools (e.g., Notion as the "modern workspace," not a spreadsheet killer), emphasizing how it builds upon existing workflows while offering enhanced functionality and long-term benefits.
Think about those self-service kiosks. They weren't initially solving a dire problem, but they were framed as a faster, more convenient way to order – a logical upgrade for busy customers. The Apple Vision Pro, while futuristic, will need to demonstrate tangible benefits for productivity, communication, or entertainment that justify the investment for the pragmatic user. Duolingo's gamified approach needs to show real language acquisition progress to convince the early majority that it's more than just a fun diversion.
Getting the early majority to adopt your "vitamin" is about demonstrating clear, tangible value, minimising risk, and aligning with their practical mindset. Show them how your enhancement makes their already good lives or workflows measurably better in a reliable and easy-to-integrate way.
Challenges and Considerations
Going down the path of building a vitamin is not an easy one to tread - there are challenges at every stage of the product lifecycle, as we've seen with industries like XR which have struggled for mainstream adoption for at least 10 years:
Finding Your Niche: Identifying the initial group who value your specific enhancement (Product-Market Fit).
Building Perceived Value: Creating a strong sense of desirability and demonstrating how your "vitamin" enhances life in meaningful ways (Value Proposition Communication).
Creating Lasting Value: Ensuring a delightful user experience and clearly demonstrating ongoing, incremental improvements (UX & Measuring Value).
Standing Out: Differentiating your "vitamin" and effectively reaching your target audience in a crowded market (Differentiation & Marketing).
Becoming Essential: Understanding the long-term potential for your enhancement to become a deeply ingrained habit or even a necessity (Evolving Perception).
Over time, some vitamins become so ingrained in daily life that they transcend ‘enhancement’ and become necessities, blurring the line between vitamin and cure.
Navigating Emerging Technology Adoption
When introducing a "vitamin" product based on an emerging technology, some fundamental challenges will remain the same, but differentiation is less critical initially. Instead, the focus shifts to:
Strategic Pricing: Pricing can be a key tool to attract a dedicated niche willing to pay a premium, allowing for feedback and iteration before broader market appeal. Apple's Vision Pro, for example, uses this strategy.
Communicating Value & Applications: Effectively showcasing the unique value and practical applications of the emerging technology. For instance, the Vision Pro is focusing on enhancing existing productivity, communication, and entertainment use cases.
Guiding Early Adopters: Addressing potential concerns about uncertainty or complexity and providing support to navigate the learning curve. Apple Stores' dedicated demo rooms are a good example of this guidance for the Vision Pro.
This is a different set of considerations compared to enhancing established markets, where differentiation is paramount.
Innovation: When Does a Vitamin Become a Cure?
While vitamins start as enhancements, through constant innovation and adaptation they can become a cure. Smartphones began as luxury gadgets but have become indispensable. The PlayStation started as a luxury distraction for kids but evolved into a social and cultural staple; parents now see it as essential for entertainment, creativity, and even education. Airbnb evolved from a way in which to have cultural experiences to a cost-effective alternative to hotels. The key? Enhance until the product embeds itself into daily life.
Conclusion: The Future of Product Development
In a world often resistant to radical change, products that build upon existing habits, or enhance familiar behaviour or activities, find a smoother path to adoption. People naturally gravitate towards improvements that feel like a seamless step forward. Sustainable success often comes from evolutionary steps, that subtly but surely improve not just our daily routines, but also the ways we connect, create, interact and experience the world around us.
Final Thought: Final Thought: The most effective vitamins become indispensable simply by enhancing our routines. What's a product in your life that doesn't solve a problem, but you'd genuinely miss if it were gone?
Comments