Reference

https://www.reforge.com/blog/the-power-user-trap

Summary

What is a power user trap?

Power users are generally the outliers within the ecosystem of your product and are heavy users of your product/features. The power user trap entails the dilemma of either over optimising the product for power users at the expense of the overall experience of majority of other users VS ignoring the power users leading to lost revenues and potential breakthroughs in the product. Each side of the trap leads to killing of your product.

Focusing solely on power users lead to:

• Making the product complex to your normal users, thus losing them to other competitors
• Worsens the experience for the new users
• Missing out on the opportunities to expand the product market fit that can provide exponential growth

Focusing solely on the non-power users lead to:

• Losing opportunity that have the power users bring to generate high revenues
• Losing the power users since it no longer suits their needs

Why do people fall under the power user trap?

• Mistaking the definition of Power user
  • Most definition of power user rely on the usage of the product over a specific time frame, however, pure usability is not always the key driver of product outcomes
  • It is much better to think about the usage of key features within the product that drives growth or outcomes for the product
• Ignoring the second order effects
  • Since power users are determined based on the usage, the outliers that have limited usage but create most impact are missed out
• Focusing on only one type of power user
  • There are multiple types of power users driving the product, however, teams categorise all power users as the same type
  • This leads to missing out on opportunities to build more successful product that suits the other power user types

New definition of Power User

“The power users are outliers in terms of their behaviour and influence in the ecosystem”

There can be different types of power users based on:

• Monetization
• Creation
• Engagement
• Audience growth
• Costs