The Adjacent User Theory

Bangaly Kaba ex-growth Instagram/Instacart has a guest post on Andrew Chen’s blog on The Adjacent User Theory. He defines them as users who are aware of a product and possibly tried using it, but are not able to successfully become an engaged user. This is typically because the current product positioning or experience has too many barriers to adoption for them.

When you enable adjacent users to successfully experience the core value proposition, it not only changes the engagement of near term cohorts but flows through to creating impact for all future cohorts of users. This doesn’t just impact retention, but flows through your growth loops to impact acquisition and monetization as well.

He breaks it down and talks about discovering and defining you adjacent users, common attributes they share, how to build empathy with the adjacent user and more. If you re a product marketer you would want to go read it.