Nike+ iPod: Starting the Self-Instrumentation Age
Posted by Ariel Seidman | December 16, 2007
@Work we instrument our products/services to ensure that we can track important metrics — as Peter Drucker said “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Yet, for metrics that impact our quality of life @Home we have yet to develop products that help people efficiently manage some of the more important aspect of their lives:
- Health
- How much exercise do you get per week?
- How much crappy food do you eat per week?
- Energy Consumption
- How much money are are you spending on energy and do you know the cost of your energy choices?
- How much damage (carbon emissions) are you doing to the earth?
- TV consumption:-)
- How much time are you wasting?
Because we all just have one shot at life, these are actually are a lot more important then the @work metrics. Measurement and analytic products in the business domain are well-established and long-ago crossed the chasm. However, on the consumer side while there are niche products such as Polar watches there are no self-measurement products (needs a catchier name, but for now this highly descriptive will work) that have successfully crossed the chasm.
Nike+ iPod is poised to cross the chasm and is starting to uncover the opportunities of a self-measurement age. There are a couple of things that they nailed in this first version that will enable them to cross the chasm:
- Plugs-Into Existing Products
- We don’t need to create new products from the ground up to measure these everyday activities we simply need to plugin sensors and displays into existing products. Contrast this to a product like Polar that is attempting to build niche products from the ground up that help athletes measure their performance.
- Low-Cost
- Once you’ve spent $400+ on an iPod and Nike sneakers buying an Nike+ iPod Kit for $29 is not going to break your bank.
- This point is driven by #1 above.
- Simple Setup
- Just put the sensor below the insole of your sneaker and a small receiver snaps into your iPod — that’s it your done. See here.
- ‘Thermometer’ Interface
- Explains to the user how they are progressing or regressing with their runs.
- Lightweight analytics that allows you to slice/dice your runs — for those of you familiar with Business Objects or Siebel Analytics there are hints of those types of experience here. Below are my runs for the past few months as seen on nikeplus.com
What still needs some work:
- Positive Peer Pressure
- Enable users to encourage and compete with each other. This is incredibly imporant because it keeps people engaged and provides a viral way to introduce potential customers to the product.
- They don’t need to create a new social-network to develop this community and positive peer pressure. Rather tap into an existing social network at the point of registration (more on this for another post).
Beyond the value that this creates for users, it also builds lock-in for Nike and Apple — when I get ready to buy a new set of sneakers in a few months guess what I will be buying.
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