He built a $10 billion business with 100 million users — and here’s his secret to getting customers: “Vitamins don’t change user behavior. Painkillers do.” That’s what Notion cofounder + CEO Ivan Zhao told me, when we spoke for this month’s Entrepreneur magazine cover story. Here’s what he means: People hate change — so they WON’T do it for something that’s simply good and useful (aka a vitamin). Instead, they’ll only change when they’re in PAIN… and your product can solve it (aka a painkiller). In other words: For your consumer, the pain of changing behavior must be LESS THAN the pain of NOT changing behavior! Most founders unknowingly build vitamins. They’re nice products that people can live without — and that’s why they fail. So ask yourself: Do you have a vitamin or a painkiller? And are you reaching the people who are in the most pain? If this post was helpful, please share it and follow Jason Feifer for more. To read my full Entrepreneur Media profile of Ivan and how he drives growth, click here: https://lnkd.in/eyrGqUTf
What a joy it was to work with you and your team on this, Jason Feifer. Thank you for capturing the Notion spirit and telling our story so authentically!
Love this: Could you share more insights?
two types of people - the Diet Coke and Spindrift!
Sequoia Capital has a good framework for this that takes the thinking a bit further, which I find helpful. The problem isn't that "only painkillers work" as products. It's that if you're in either the "upend the status quo" or the "futuristic" categories (both not covered by the "vitamin vs painkiller" dichotomy) you need to have your mental model accommodate very different pictures of what failure and success look like.
As Allan Dib puts it, whether your target market views your product as a vitamin or painkiller determines how hard selling it is going to be. This, however, is not as subjective. There's still an objective element we can bet on. Painkillers are urgent, fundamental needs, while vitamins are enhancements people seek once critical needs are solved. Once you’ve got the essential furniture—a critical need, you may start considering interior design—a privileged need. To tap into this category, you should have an interior design studio open. In my view, people are willing to spend on both basic and privileged needs, depending on where they are in their lives. So, whether your product is a painkiller or a vitamin, it's a question of whether your positioning fuses into their perception to trigger the purchase decision.
Pain and the reduction of it, is key to anything related to money, it isn't rocket science. Societies have successfully introduced many things that act as pain killers. It's proven that we spend far more if we use a credit card or debit card instead of cash. If we pay for TV or Gym membership by subscription rather than annual payment. You need 2-5 time the gain to eradicate the emotional impact of the loss when parting with money, dependent on the individual. Anything that counters the feeling of loss..2 for 1...BOGOF, all successfully deal with pain and gain. We are predictably irrational as emotional human beings.😊
That's a great analogy. Vitamins Vs Painkillers. We can bring it a notch further. This is a challenge that I am constantly facing for hooks, CTAs, pitches etc. When marketing or selling to customers; don't sell them the end product of the vitamin; AKA you will live longer, You will feel more energetic, You will be stronger. Those are generic.. Sell them the end product of the critical illness drug; AKA you will step bleeding from your nose, you will fall asleep faster, and you won't look like you are dying. It's easy to outline the benefits. It isn't easy to identify the impending doom of not using the product or show them the 'leprechaun at the end of the rainbow' of using your product.
If what you do is perceived by your target market as a vitamin, you’ll have a much harder time selling it. You have to position yourself as the painkiller that relieves that pain immediately.
Interesting perspective. The idea of creating painkillers instead of vitamins definitely challenges the typical approach to product development. It really makes you think about customer motivation.
Thanks for sharing Jason Feifer and Ivan Zhao! Great takeaways about how successful businesses need to understand and accelerate the spaces they operate in.