“Ostrich Effect”
Referring to user behavior the “Ostrich effect” depicts how people turning a blind-eye to things could deeply affecting product adoption. Here’s how you ought to factor that in & find workarounds...
Building context…!
Ok, picture this!
You walk into the office one day and are amazed at how people are raving about exercising and maintaining fitness levels and you later realize how that has to do with a world-class Gym (Yay! They also have a sauna) with all the advanced amenities on the top floor of that very building and are offering a deep discount exclusively to the employees of your organization.
At some point, you’d obviously be forced towards thinking about canceling that existing membership wherever and however close it is to your place of stay and would want to enroll to this new one ASAP. And supposing you weren’t inclined towards a Gym routine up until then, you may be forced to think seriously about it at least for once owing to the demand around you and how it seems to be the talk of the town, equally applying if you were to be borderline / chronic obese.
Just suppose you happen to be a total foody although you are confident about how you have planned your cheat days pretty well.
Now, here are a few questions.
how many of you would be comfortable booking that dietician / nutritionist appointment & ensure you visit them in the first place?
how many of you would get your weight checked after that 2 weeks hiatus when its evident how the clothes you wore to the Gym don’t seem to fit you anymore?
how many of you would be very obliged to get those advanced tests done the subsequent day after you’ve had that 3-day retreat over your annual works outing and had freaked out on the spread (free food and booze)?
would you really give up totally on sweets given how the probability of the dietician asking you to drop sugar from your diet is pretty high?
would you get your blood pressure checked in the morning after you lost count of how many big bags of Cheetos & huge bars of Toblerone you polished off the previous night binge watching your favorite sport ?
So, what’s that expression?
“Oh, please!! What a rhetorical question!, are you nuts!? no way!!”
You see how a large percentage of people who would be willing to respond to those questions in the “positive” could be abysmally low.
That’s very much the “Ostrich effect” in action there.
Ostrich Effect
Definition:
“The Ostrich effect is essentially a type of cognitive bias that influences people to be highly selective & picky in exposing themselves to some information that seems to irk them as it is perceived potentially unpleasant”
The term Ostrich effect comes from the mythical expression “bury your head in the sand” owing to the myth that the big bird often tends to bury its head in the sand when it senses any danger.
Wider application & scope:
The Ostrich effect could be common across various domains and its application does indeed go beyond what meets the eye in some cases. Let’s explore the scope and application of this effect over a few examples across domains.
01) Personal health & hygiene
There are many examples here right from exercising to keep fit or alcohol or cigarette consumption. Exercising at the gym could be a great way to get fitter faster given the advice of expert consultants / personal trainers, yet most people choose to stay away from that option. Baffling!
Also, consuming alcohol & smoking (even if that was to be intermittent) is harmful to health and yet we have so many people who take to these habits on a regular basis ignoring all warning signs printed visibly clearly on the containers.
02) Finance
Every investment is bound to carry a degree of risk sans which there could be no reward attached to it at all, and in a case where that doesn’t hold good the credentials of the scheme would certainly be questionable. When it is important to examine all the factoids prior to getting into the investment, there is also no ignoring the dynamism of the facets influencing market conditions that are subject to change without warning.
But in spite of carrying all of that understanding, it is possible that some may choose not to keep an eye on the markets when things are looking up and tend to keep some sort of a deathwatch during turmoil, however insignificantly low the impact of that was to be.
03) Environmental causes
There’s no denying the ongoing global warming conditions and the repercussions of it which is not only limited to the melting glaciers in the north pole but is totally evident with rising temperatures, untimely rains, unreasonable seasonal overlaps et. al.
Possessing all that knowledge we the erudite urban population are all guilty of going our merry way contributing to that depletion on one hand and not doing anything positive at all so as to strike even as much as a minute balance on the other hand.
04) Education
Students who are in junior high and above so often tend to selectively pick and choose only those topics that are deemed easy given the syllabus of the said term whilst willingly ignoring the ones that are tough irrespective of how important they are considered to be both from the vantage point of both generic learning and specific to the tests / assessments / exams.
Correlation to other effects:
When one refers to the Ostrich effect some of these common psychological effects are also spoken about, either in the same breath or entirely the opposite.
Here are some that are totally worthy of a mention:
01) Selective exposure
Individuals could show a propensity to adhere to a belief that they seem to carry from a specific instance, also stronger the stature of the source the stronger the propensity.
For ex: we usually tend to stick to using popular brands of toothpaste because we come from an enforced train of thought that the chemical formula used is impeccable for our gums and teeth, when the reality is they still are harmful chemicals and carry nothing really natural at all.
02) Cognitive bias
Individuals are known to form their own opinions leading into what could be a subjective reality deriving a sort of a meaning of their own, interpreting it according to their convenience deviating totally from the actual reality.
For ex: we usually tend to believe something that may even totally deviate from being accurate when it happens to come from someone who could be considered a towering personality and a well established, popular figure.
03) Confirmation bias
Individuals do tend to conduct research to support their beliefs and just stop at the very first instance that they happen to find any supporting evidence.
For ex: some of us tend to turn the page quickly to check on that horoscope section to know how our day would look like and what to expect when the reality is a super-famous celebrity / a billionaire entrepreneur could share the same birth date and horoscope would read the same for them as well.
04) Meerkat effect
Individuals tend to behave in a hyperactive fashion combined with some anxiety as well towards some stimulus and that effect could be pronounced when the stimulus exhibits some polarity.
For ex: Sitting in an Uber many of us tend to keep checking our watch or the time on our phone when are stuck in a bit of traffic and we have to get to a place that is very important and reaching within time is a prerequisite, in spite of the App dynamically updating the ETA according to traffic conditions prevalent. This is also the exact opposite of the Ostrich effect.
Application to Product Management
The Ostrich effect happens to be prevalent at a subconscious level and deeply affects the way products get envisioned, built and adopted with teams pinning on insight obtained from the markets which come bundled in with these biases.
As you might have gauged, there are 2 main headers under which there could be a wider spectrum of problems the Ostrich effect could lead to.
LEVEL 1 - EXTERNAL: Markets & user behavior
1. Primary research
Given the propensity of product teams and orgs. who want to conduct primary research over attempting to build an understanding of the choices that matter to the larger markets, it is possible that the users may be totally biased over choosing a product owing to its undying popularity and how the brand might have held pole position & a giant market share for really a long time.
2. Survey responses
Its very possible that users be totally or partially biased towards something that makes them feel great, blame it on the “shiny object syndrome”. When surveys are a great way to capture data and derive insights over the responses obtained, it is very crucial to know how them responses could all be skewed towards one side favoring one of the options unilaterally. But for all one knows that may be a result of the Ostrich effect.
3. Product adoption
Blame it on herd-mentality or people largely hinging on hearsay to even say yes to a new product’s trial, the adoption patterns could be filled with biases not discounting the fact that those choices may be a total mismatch to the users in some cases. Sometimes it’s the loudest voice in the crowd that they fall prey to influencing them to adopt product (A) seamlessly and at the same time totally shun products (B) (C) or (D) labeling them as “not so good” when in reality there may be nothing chiefly wrong with any of those either.
LEVEL 2 - INTERNAL: Envisioning products
1. Ideation
Some team members or at times the team as a whole may share some kind of a sentiment over an idea that they think proceeding over may be the right way forward and may also go to any length to defend it by stashing ONLY that part of the data that supports their collective train of thought.
2. Envisioning features
Product teams sometimes could get blinded over some feature they think would be a best fit given how the competition seems to have the whole market gripping in excitement about that (x) feature. Given that scenario teams so often tend to ignore all the protocols and jump right over to the solutions phase enlisting that in the roadmap and building it so as to get a foot in the door and be in the game.
3. Survey questions
The framing of questions and the choices of options being offered is such a delicate aspect of gaining insight from the market and it could be a huge game changer for many products and product teams. Most times the framing of survey questions is so leading (you could read that as “wrong” as well) that they themselves induce bias falling prey to popular voices in the market ruining the fairness of conducting surveys in the first place.
Solution / Workarounds
“There is no denying the fact that there could be tons of instances of the Ostrich effect subconsciously immersed into many aspects across the stages of the PLC right from ideation to growth”
But, here’s the good news.
Most of these could be pretty straightforward to identify albeit with a bit of watchfulness and being a little more conscious although their being combatable could depend on the experience & tact of teams.
Here are a few steps you ought to follow:
1) Reassessment
When every team may believe in and get into those brainstorming sessions, the inclination ought to be an important consideration. Getting down into the nitty gritty and envisioning what could possibly go wrong whilst trying to identify ways and means to combat those tricky situations and being prepared, being dynamic, being agile is a worthy time spent over brainstorming.
And it could be crucial to get a third perspective in which is when involving a neutral entity who doesn’t have anything to do with the process or chops could work pretty well. It could be a skip level manager or an external advisor.
2) Running Mocks
When some acknowledge the importance of running mocks (if not full-fledged MVPs) it is so misconstrued and underrated. Whether it is a specific UI element or simply an idea that product teams need some validation over, this could be the best route to take to gain some momentum and set foot in the right direction.
And this is where the 404s / Trapdoors / Elevated trapdoors could help a great deal. Imagine having all that insight post validating over those necessary pockets of the market at may be 20% of the cost that you would have incurred if you had to build MVPs (or MLPs), let alone full-fledged features. Totally worth its weight in Gold.
For additional resources on this topic [click → “elevated trapdoors” ← here]!!
3) User Interviews (laddering)
A product’s success hinges broadly on finding the answer to one simple question: “What’s my user thinking about the product in general or an idea / feature in particular”. And, finding the answer to that question may look very straightforward as popping a simple question like, “Ok, how do you feel about this idea / feature / product?” But a few months into a product role and you know that’s far from reality.
Yes, you have the option of observing the trail of the users on the product given the adherence to various analytics & unmoderated testing tools tracking their every single move. But, never undermine or discount the act of getting on a detailed call with a few select users and laddering your way in by asking them follow-up questions over what broadly represents their choices, be it an option chosen over a survey or a click on a specific area on the product like a CTA for example. When some users could volunteer over sharing their experiences, it is also possible that product teams may have to conduct this exercise hiring users and paying their way in at times.
4) Continuous Discovery
Given how the ecosystem of products are undergoing some massive changes and affecting the workflow of people largely amidst business space evolving by the day / the week, talking to the users does help and would help a greater deal if it happened to be more continuous, an ongoing affair.
No doubt, the Ostrich effect would have a deeper reach in the market and it could mean dealing with totally skewed opinions, it becomes important to get down to understand the emotions the users happen to go through when choosing some (x) and the motivations behind their choices. Conducting discovery continuously combined with user interviews could help beat this bias down, big time.
For additional resources on this topic [click → “Journey from Data to Insight - Part II” ← here]
5) Focus on Innovation
The market’s opinions could be totally biased alright and when one acknowledges this for a fact one also knows very well that it can’t be avoided. But operating within the confines of ONLY those pointers could point to a retrograde approach when product teams ought to be proactive in terms of envisioning next moves, spending enough time over ideating in the zone.
The Ostrich effect could make it feel like one’s treading on a one-way-street, but if teams have enough emphasis on overall innovation at a macro-level, which is to say the organization / mission / vision level along with an additional onus on UX, UI, Design, CX at the micro-level it could go a long way in beating the biases hands down.
Key Takeaway:
The Ostrich effect persists and does subconsciously affect how choices are made. If one is solving a big problem by building a product at a macro level or what could just be a small feature or an integration to another existing and popular tool, it only makes sense to factor this bias in across all levels as prescribed here over the entire stretch of this article.