Technology Sometimes Makes Early Adopters Look Like Criminals
I got a COIN for Christmas. It’s a device that stores multiple credit cards, gift cards, or any card with a magnetic strip. The device is literally the size of a credit card in thickness, height, and length. I have wanted one of these since they launched. I don’t necessarily need it but the feat of engineering to make a device the same thickness of a credit card was incredible enough that I had to get one. After Christmas, I went on a vacation to Florida with my family. The fist time I nonchalantly used my coin was at a local breakfast stop after landing. The waitress was in all of the COIN. Pretty cool I thought this is going to be great.
This is not the prevailing trend. Later that day I was checking out a grocery store. Now the cashier was extremely skeptical and decided to call over his supervisor. I tried to explain that it was just a device. I was now being stared at by several people.
To be fair, Florida does have its difficulties with crime. Besides prescription drug crime its criminal underworld is also known for its fraud. Florida leads the nation in [reports by Federal Trade Commission] with 1,000 total complaints per 100,000 people compared to the national average of 500 complaints per 100,000 people. Miami, which is on the east coast, is the hub of this activity (I was in Naples, which is on the west cost, basically a three-hour drive to Miami). So in retrospect, I do understand how a guy with a device that is claiming to store multiple credit cards may site some suspicions.
The funny thing about being in tech is that early adopters sometimes appear to look a lot like criminals.
The second example is around a year ago, I had a sinus infection and decided to give telemedicine a try instead of going in person to a doctor. I downloaded an app I had heard about from a few other friends in tech that had previously gotten some decent press coverage in the tech community. It prompted me asking for my symptoms and in a few minutes I was connected with a doctor in a similar interface such as FaceTime/Skype or the like. The doctor was in the classic blue scrubs in a room with no windows that appeared to be a supply closet. He asked me to hold up my phone’s camera to my mouth and open up so he could see my throat. After which, he reviewed my medical history. All went well, and he prescribed me a type of antibiotics that I had worked previously. After asking him where he was located, he responded, London.
He then said the telemedicine company would be faxing over my prescription to the Walgreens pharmacy near my apartment at the time in San Francisco. I walked down the street to pick up my prescription where I was soon told that my prescription was not filled. The pharmacist told me that she was uncomfortable filling such prescription, and she was exercising her right as a pharmacist not to fill the prescription. I call up the Telemedicine company telling them what had happened but much to my surprise they explain that there was nothing that they could do and agreed to refund me for my call.
Both of these examples bring up an interesting point, in what we as founders and product creators need to be considering. We may have an excellent product/service for the end customer, but that is not enough. We need to ensure that we predict roadblocks and bring _all_ stakeholders and customer touch points into the loop of product development.
In the cases above the stakeholders would be merchants and pharmacists. If Coin would have put a small blurb of text on the back of the device to merchants telling them about COIN that could potentially prevent many issues. They also could have worked with the major card providers such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express notifying them of the new technology. Bringing stakeholders such as these to the table and recognizing them as critical links to the overall product and customer experience is important.
For telemedicine companies, it would be educating pharmacies. Teaching them how to handle and embrace telemedicine while ensuring the safety/ethicality of such practices. Building relationships with the major pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS would be a no brainer for them and could significantly improve the user experience for a vast number of users.
Technology startups are starting to break out of creating software and hardware where all the variables are self-contained between software and the user. Companies are bringing waves of innovation to industries, such as financial services and healthcare, that in many cases have not seen change in decades. While this innovation is desperately needed, there will be more stakeholders that will need to be considered.