What an early adopter is and how to find yours
An early adopter is someone who tries something new before most people. What it means, Rogers's adoption curve, Moore's chasm and how to find the first users of a product, service or channel.
An early adopter is a person or company that starts using a product, a technology or an idea before most people, while it still has flaws and hardly anyone knows it. They don't do it just out of curiosity: they see an advantage and are willing to put up with imperfections to get it before everyone else.
Examples: whoever bought a folding-screen phone in its first generation, whoever started posting on TikTok when it was "the dance app", or the shop that accepted phone payments when almost no customer used them.
Where the term comes from
It was popularised by sociologist Everett Rogers in Diffusion of Innovations (1962). Rogers studied how hybrid seeds spread among US farmers and saw that any innovation spreads following a pattern close to a bell curve. He split people into five groups by when they adopt:
| Group | Share | What they're like |
|---|---|---|
| Innovators | 2.5% | Try everything new, even if it isn't useful yet |
| Early adopters | 13.5% | Adopt early but with judgement; others watch them |
| Early majority | 34% | Wait to see it works and to have references |
| Late majority | 34% | Sceptical; adopt when it's already the norm |
| Laggards | 16% | Only change when there's no alternative left |
Rogers's key point is that early adopters are opinion leaders: the people around them ask them before deciding. That's why they're so valuable to anyone launching something new.
The chasm between the first users and the majority
In 1991, Geoffrey Moore published Crossing the Chasm and added a nuance: between early adopters and the early majority there is a chasm. The first buy a vision and tolerate flaws; the majority wants something that works now, with references from people like them and without hassle. Many products succeed with the pioneers and stop there.
The practical lesson: what convinces early adopters (novelty, potential, exclusive access) isn't what convinces the majority (reliability, real cases, ease). The message, and the pieces that tell it, has to change when the audience changes.
How to recognise an early adopter
- They have a real problem that the new thing solves and feel it more than others.
- They've already tried to make do with homemade solutions: spreadsheets, combinations of several apps, workarounds.
- They give feedback without being asked and tell others.
- They'd rather get there first than wait until everything is polished.
How to find yours
It works the same for a product, a service, a YouTube channel or a new format:
- Look where your audience complains about the problem you solve: forums, groups, comments on competitors' videos, Reddit.
- Offer early access with something in return: launch pricing, direct contact, a say in what gets built.
- Show the process. Pioneers get hooked on watching something being built. A video dev diary or a weekly thread works better than a polished ad.
- Talk to them one by one at first. Ten conversations give you more than a thousand visits.
- Ask them for content: a review, a screenshot, a video of them using it. It's the social proof the majority will need later.
To decide how to present something new at each stage, the types of product launch show options ranging from the seed launch, designed for exactly this group, to the open launch.
Frequently asked questions
What does early adopter mean?
It means someone who starts using a product, technology or idea before most people. According to Everett Rogers's curve they are about 13.5% of the population and act as opinion leaders for the rest.
What's the difference between innovators and early adopters?
Innovators (2.5%) try any novelty for the sake of trying it, even if they don't need it. Early adopters (13.5%) adopt early because they see a concrete advantage, and their opinion influences others. That's why, for a launch, the second group usually matters more.
What is Moore's chasm?
It's the gap Geoffrey Moore described in Crossing the Chasm (1991) between early adopters and the early majority. The first buy potential; the majority wants something proven. Many products stall because they keep talking to pioneers when they need to convince the majority.
What's another word for early adopter?
Pioneer user, early user or first mover are common alternatives, although in marketing and tech the term early adopter is the one most used.