Comments on: Tom Hogarty interview

By: tomhogarty

tomhogarty — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:09:20 +0000

I didn’t think you were allowed to work in Silicon Valley unless you had read Christensen’s work.(I would be surprised if any marketing-focused MBA program left it out of their curriculum) We can debate whether the technology is evolutionary or disruptive but many of the same concepts apply.

Another informative work is Everett Rogers’ ‘Diffusion of Innovations.’

Regards,
Tom

By: evnglst

evnglst — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:23:23 +0000

spreaderb wrote:

> I don’t know if you know the “Disruptive
> Innovation” Theory by Clayton Christensen.
> which basically says that a company risks its
> product leadership if all innovation only occurs
> in evolutionary improvements of the existing
> products.

Interesting that you’ve linked Tom’s comment on evolutionary improvements to Christensen. Mark and I both read Christensen, and argued strenuously that Shadowland should be treated as a disruptive technology by Adobe management. I can’t say we got everything we were aiming for, but think it’s clear that LR would not exist in its current form today, had it not been for Christensen’s inspiration (and Hamburg’s desire) to build something entirely new.

By: Martin Evening

Martin Evening — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:12:24 +0000

I hadn’t heard of that theory before, but it does in some ways fit with the way that the Lightroom project came into being. Because of the way the nature of digital photography has changed the way we shoot and interact with the photographs we take, it was clear that something more than Bridge was needed. Of course, Adobe weren’t the only ones thinking this and we have seen other products emerge to tackle this particular market need.

While Photoshop gains strength from being part of the overall Creative Suite, I really do like the way Lightroom has had the freedom to build on work done in Camera Raw and yet have the flexibility to work outside of the Creative Suite paradigm and allow fresh ideas to emerge.

Martin

By: spreaderb

spreaderb — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:56:38 +0000

Thanks Martin to let us have this insight into the Lightroom development.

In the interview Tom stated: “I really appreciate the flexibility we’ve had to innovate outside of the evolutionary improvements that are taking place within the Creative Suite or Photoshop.”

I don’t know if you know the “Disruptive Innovation” Theory by Clayton Christensen. (www.12manage.com/methods_christensen_disruptive_innovation.html)
which basically says that a company risks its product leadership if all innovation only occurs in evolutionary improvements of the existing products. So in my opinion for a company like Adobe to remain innovative it is absolutely necessary to create the disruptive innovation to their own products.
And Lightroom is the perfect example of such an approach. So thanks again and congratulations to LR2