A ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. Everyone on the left side only needed to make one pot all semester, and that one pot would be graded on its perfection. Everyone on the right side would be graded only by weight. He said, “I don’t care what you make on the final day, I’m going to bring in my bathroom scale, and we’re just going to weigh it. Over 50 pounds of pots gets you and A. Over 40 pounds gets you a B. Thirty pounds a C, et cetera. I don’t even care what it is. I’m not even going to look at it. Just weigh it. Go.”

At the end of the semester, there was a surprising result. The works of the highest quality when an outside observer was watching at the end of the class were all the ones that were made by the quantity group. Those that were being judged only on weight. It seems that while this quantity group was busy just churning out piles of work and learning from their mistakes. The quality group, the one that was being judged just on one part, had sat there theorizing about perfection and in the end had nothing but grandiose theories and one mediocre part.

Source: https://sive.rs/failure

The typical purchase cycle goes through the steps of awareness, consideration and purchase. Below, I am deconstructing the consideration phase.

During the consideration phase, users take into account the following factors:

1. Functional Utility of the product

2. Trust that the functional utility will be delivered as promised

3. Price (low price or fair price perception)

4. Ease of purchase (steps taken to purchase)

5. Delivery Speed

6. Ease of return, if things don’t work out

The above list is derived from observing numerous products and remembering Jeff Bezos’ statement that customers always want “low price, vast selection and fast delivery”.

Side note: Vast selection may not impact immediate purchase decision, but is helpful in making people return back to the platform.

Note: I am using the word “Purchase” in a broader sense. It could mean any final transaction step on any kind of platform. Example -

• “Easy Apply” on LinkedIn Jobs signifies ease of applying to a job (ease of purchase)

• Promise of 10 minute delivery on quick commerce apps signifies Delivery speed.

• Install a plugin via a single click in a software marketplace (ease of purchase)

We can add numerous examples here.