When I do workshops with clients to help them find a way of #CrossingTheChasm, the most common phrase I hear is "but that's too small of a segment."

Sports teams have one for each game. Theatre companies have one for each production. Political parties have one for each campaign. And high-tech companies...well, not so fast. What are we talking about? Playbooks. Their purpose: to coordinate a group of autonomous individuals, performing a complex activity, to achieve a predetermined and gratifying result. 

At a recent Churchill Club meeting my colleague and Chasm Institute Chairman Geoffrey Moore interviewed Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer about the business of making and selling their uber-branded luxury automobiles. One of the topics of conversation was how Aston Martin did segmentation. In a nutshell, they created "personas" representing the ideal buyer for each of their luxury models, all of which support the overall branding concept of "power, beauty, soul."

The 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has come and gone. Vendors demonstrated how wearables, 4K OLED TVs, and 3-D printing, among many other categories, would change our lives. And no doubt one day some of them will. But not so fast. Lots of cool stuff, but for some categories, mass consumer adoption lies further down the road. Although these "consumer" products are being launched at the CES, in order to cross the chasm many of these are in reality going to be selling to business for some time to come. The Technology Adoption Life Cycle (TALC) can serve as a compass for how to navigate the waters of both consumer and business adoption. For disruptive innovations, consumer adoption may eventually happen, but only after the category crosses the chasm in business.

Much has been written in the last two days about the legacy of Steve Jobs. And I must say that I agree with most all that's been said. But I have one thing to add.