Brilliant product, wrong buyer: What HP's CapShare teaches about B2B innovation. Or how to test prototypes.
By Johannes Roth, CURTH+ROTH
Autumn 1998. HP announces the CapShare 910. A handheld scanner that you sweep freely across a page. It reads the fibres in the paper to track its own position, stitches the strokes into a 300 dpi image in about six seconds, and stores up to 50 pages as PDF.
The press loved it. TIME praised how easy it was to use. Trade magazines spoke of a new kind of scanner.
Two years later, the product line was history.
What went wrong is well documented
First, the price. At around 700 dollars, the CapShare cost as much as a good digital camera or an office flatbed scanner. Its inventor later said that few people were willing to pay that much, and that HP could have understood its customers better. The successor cost only 299 dollars. Reviewers still found it too expensive for what it could do.
T
hen the effort. Microsoft Research gave the device to eleven office workers for a week and a half. Scans failed because of creases and paper clips. Sending a page to colleagues took half a dozen steps: scan, check, rescan, connect, transfer, write an email. So people simply did the maths. If a copy or the original file was more convenient, the scanner stayed in the drawer.
And within HP, the team had little backing. Management researchers later used the handheld scanners as an example of an innovation supported neither by top management nor by the established scanner business.
What the sources don't show, but we have often seen
The CapShare was a personal device. In companies, however, such devices are not bought by the person who loves them. The decision lies with the buying center.
We have seen this pattern again and again: A manager wants to introduce a new device, and IT puts on the brakes. Not because IT is against innovation. It asks different questions. Can we roll this out? Can it be integrated into our systems? Who supports it? What does it cost per workstation, and what do we gain?
The enthusiastic user never asks these questions. The buying center always does.
Why teams mostly hear praise
When a product team tests its own product, it mostly hears praise. The team is proud and presents with enthusiasm. Respondents answer politely. And the team listens most closely when its own idea is confirmed.
That is why we tell our clients: Praise feels good. Criticism shows what still needs to be done. And in B2B, the most useful criticism often comes from people who never use the product themselves but decide on the purchase. That is why neutral, psychologically trained researchers should be involved when prototypes are tested.
The happy ending
The CapShare's motion sensing did not disappear. It is widely regarded as the basis for the optical sensor in computer mice. A brilliant technology found its market. Just not the one it was built for.
Three questions before launch
What does the buyer compare your price with, and does the comparison work in your favour?
How many steps does the whole task take, not just the part your product handles?
Who signs the purchase order, and what does that person need to hear?
Want honest feedback on your prototype, including the buying center's perspective? That is what Market Navigation is for, our rapid prototyping with real customers.
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