This survey aims to understand how to
- Increase awareness and improve the reputation of MaidSafe right now
- Best reach and speak to the likely earliest adopters of Safe
As such, the survey isn’t aimed at people who have absolutely no understanding of decentralized solutions.
On the day job, I’m working on a data privacy project. My employer funded a few $100K in research for my team last year, which has allowed us to test both centralized & decentralized concepts with “average” consumers. Regular people don’t readily understand decentralization—even if presented with a video or paragraph explaining what it is. The moderator would then spend several minutes explaining. Once the participants began to get their heads around the notion of decentralization, they immediately pivoted to skepticism.
The earliest adopters of any decentralized tech will not be the average Joe (which isn’t surprising). Interestingly enough, most survey respondents right now identify as Consumers. They are what we’d consider informed consumers (i.e. Innovators and Early Adopters).
If Safe is ever to transition into Growth & Maturity, it needs to first effectively reach the Innovators and Early Adopters. These are the consumer groups that will carry Safe through the first product/market lifecycle stages (which will take years, by the way).
When Safe actually launches and survives the first product/market stage, then targeting the average Joe begins to come into scope.
Surveys aren’t the best method to gather data from an uninformed group (i.e. the average Joe). However, once a product is live and past the initial lifecycle stage(s), you can point to concrete assets and user experiences / testimonials to illustrate and convey what the product is. At this point there’s little reason to explain what decentralization actually is to the average consumer. To do so would be as unnecessary as having to explain to the average internet user what HTTPS is.