#14 Why we don't use eggs to lift cars

Hi folks!

Again - big welcome to the new subs. I’m pretty amazed at the open rates which are close to 50%. Whilst I didn’t want to make any commitments to consistency with writing - I’ll try and do a little more. Trialing a very short form quick idea blog.

Let’s talk about eggs and cars.

In 2010, Richard Hammond was able to hold up a 1.5 ton car using only raw eggs. (You can see the video here) What if someone built a car jack using eggs. It sounds absurd but if it can do the job then why wouldn’t we like it? Would you buy an egg car jack if it was proven to be stronger, cheaper and better in every way?

You still might opt for a normal car jack. Why is that?

Let’s use a tangible case study of remotes. A lot of remotes (TV remotes and otherwise) have weights in them. There was a case study where a company sold remotes but the feedback was that they felt cheap. After ‘fixing their product’ by adding some weights into the remote and nothing else, the customers were delighted in a more premium feeling remote.

What can we learn here? 

It doesn’t just have to work, it has to LOOK like it works. Just because your product does the job, it needs to convince users it does it well and they have to feel good about it. Sometimes your users will say something like “yeah I guess it works” with an unenthused expression. This means something is wrong. It’s your job to test and figure out exactly what is happening in their psychology to make them feel like it doesn’t work even though they see it working.

Can you think of other examples similar to the fake weights in remotes? Perhaps you have this happening with your product or company.

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Till Next Time,Ajay