Mastering The Hype Cycle

Surfing the hype cycle of a major innovation is hard work and risky if attempted alone. All leadership can get lonely and this state can be disorientating. To avoid dizziness at the peak of inflated expectations or self destructive behavior in the trough of disillusionment you may need a helping hand. A personal mentor – [...]

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In the last week we have seen a few situations where Gartner’s 2009 hype cycle research charts have been copied into public blogs and other websites without permission.  We know this is often born of interest and enthusiasm for Hype Cycles.  However it is not acceptable within our terms and conditions of use.  Our company ombudsman Nancy Erskine, explains our [...]

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We’ve seen the hype cycle used in several MBA and other graduate courses to inform the discussion on information technology adoption, but we were gratified to receive this feedback from a lecturer in regenerative medicine:
“Congratulations on an excellent book! I use the Gartner hype cycle for a number of my lectures and presentations with respect [...]

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Just sometimes the wave will breakdown and there is no way to make it work for you. If it looks like this innovation really just won’t resolve its teething troubles, take the decision, fail fast and learn. Don’t let the wave take you down and turn you over. Sometimes, when a big wave breaks a [...]

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As I have mentioned before in this blog, the search phrase ‘next big thing’ is a very useful one for emerging trends and technologies tracking.  Yes, its a cliche and used way too much by journalists – but their headline quick fix is your radar tracking gain.  Here’s a small collection of recent references I [...]

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Generally speaking the hype cycle is much better for tracking a generic market innovation (e.g. ‘mobile email’) rather than products or companies (e.g. ‘Blackberry’).  However the hype cycle is a bit of a Swiss Army Knife – usually fairly useful when you don’t have the perfect tool for the job.
With that in mind I have [...]

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Every now and then you need to inspire your internal audience and remind them what the power of the microprocessor will make possible. Moore’s law isn’t done with us yet. Here are some links to videos – not all of them brand new – but still likely to help drop jaws and get people talking.
Actor [...]

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In my working lifetime I’ve lost count of the occasions when I have faced senior decision makers who, with complete conviction, declared a technology would never be significant for their business.  Like the marketing executive who told me the Web was just like Prestel and equally doomed to fail.  And another who suggested the only [...]

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A recent TechCrunch blog post by Sarah Lacy used the headline ‘Bloggers: Let’s band together and stop the hype cycle’ . In the piece she is really reacting to the extremes of buzz building and then cynical critique of new ideas by silicon valley commentators online. Pointing to examples like Google, Twitter, Youtube and [...]

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[Disclaimer - this post DOES NOT constitute an update to Gartner's hype cycle position on microblogging*]
One of the many indicators that the peak of hype has been passed, is when the tenor of media articles about the technology innovation starts to turn sour.  Sometimes that is centered on the lead player in the emerging market [...]

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