TechPotential: Predicting Technology Success

[Josh] We've been working on something big. And now it's out there for everyone to see.

Here's the deal. For as long as I've been at Forrester -- 11 years -- and even before, people have been coming to us with their new idea. New gadgets, new Web ideas, everything from SlingBox to Netflix to eBay. We see stuff before it goes to the masses, even before it goes to the news media, sometimes before it even gets funded. And the inventors ask us -- how big will this get?

We've never been shy about answering that question. Sometimes people pay us to make an estimate. But after 11 years I began to notice a pattern -- that certain elements of our analysis were common, and could be put into a common framework.

I began working on this idea a year and a half ago, and now it's complete. It's called TechPotential, and you can get more information (and a free report) right here. (If you're not a Forrester client you'll have to give us a little information to get to it, but hey, we are trying to run a business here!)

TechPotential is, quite simply:

A rigorous, standardized methodology to assess the potential -- and estimate the sales -- of any new consumer technology product, service, or Web site.

I know, sounds impossible. But we've put all our analysis of consumer technology into a single framework, based on 8 years of consumer data and hundreds of products we've assessed. I think it's a good idea. And you'll be hearing more about it.

Stay tuned -- next post, I'll talk about the elements of TechPotential and how it works.

Technorati tags: gadgets, predictions, Bernoff, TechPotential, Forrester

Comments

[Barbara]

I completely missed this service discussion, and what a shame, as it's exactly what some friends asked me to find. I'll check your more recent post about this and put them in touch right away...