Take on Your Competition with These Lessons from Google Maps

Former Facebook CTO and Quip chief Bret Taylor shares how to dislodge well-established rivals.

Outline

1. Incumbents have entrenched distribution channels
2. Habits die way harder than you’d expect.
3. Just being different isn't enough. Your customers have to care.
4. An Example of All Three Problems: Getting to Google Maps
5. So, how do you win?
6. The Takeaway: Taking on 30 Years of Microsoft Office History with Quip

Bret Taylor is no stranger to being the underdog. From his resume, it might not seem true: MS in CS at Stanford; joined Google in 2003, co-created Google Maps; co-founded and was CEO of FriendFeed; became CTO of Facebook until 2012; currently CEO of Quip. Taylor's career seems like a "Goliath" story, but he sees himself as a "David" — trying to dislodge established competitors.

At First Round’s CEO Summit, Taylor distilled his key lessons from building products in competitive markets.

Coming out of Stanford, Taylor believed product quality leads to market success. His first job at Google reinforced that idea, as Google was a far better search engine than competitors. However, he learned that success isn’t so simple. The common mistake among startup founders is to focus solely on building a better product. As he discovered, the better mousetrap often doesn’t win.

1) Incumbents have entrenched distribution channels

Taylor explains that entrenched companies have significant advantages in distribution. Often, new companies face enormous structural challenges, like competing against established distribution networks.

2) Habits die way harder than you’d expect.

Many users exhibit strong inertia towards established products. Taylor highlights that even when Google Maps was vastly superior to MapQuest, it took years for consumers to switch due to their familiarity and habits.

3) Just being different isn't enough. Your customers have to care.

Simply being different or better isn’t sufficient; prospective customers need to recognize and value those differences before deciding to adopt your product. Taylor emphasizes the necessity of striking a balance between product differentiation and user comprehension.

An Example of All Three Problems: Getting to Google Maps

Google Maps serves as Taylor's prime example. In his early days at Google, he was directed by Marissa Mayer to build Local Search to compete with Yahoo Yellow Pages, which was ineffective. Google’s insight was to tap into the wealth of online content about local businesses. Taylor's team created multiple local search products leading to Google Maps.

Search by Location

The first attempt, "Search by Location," was unhelpful, yielding irrelevant results instead of locating specific businesses.

Google Local

The second iteration, Google Local, improved significantly but still struggled against entrenched competitors. The familiarity of Yahoo Yellow Pages hampered user acceptance of the new features.

So, how do you win?

Taylor concludes that embracing unfamiliar experiences can spur user engagement rather than simply replicating established behaviors. In Google Maps, users explored neighborhoods rather than just searching for contacts.

The Takeaway: Taking on 30 Years of Microsoft Office History with Quip

As Taylor leads Quip, he applies the same lessons to disrupt Microsoft Office. Quip is designed to facilitate modern, collaborative work rather than just replicate office documents. After early iterations, Taylor's team realized they needed to distance Quip from traditional spreadsheet conventions, leading to a more integrated and novel approach that resonated with users.

Taylor's evolving design philosophy emphasizes creating discomfort in familiarity to encourage growth and adoption of new technologies.