Has FIRST Crossed the Chasm?

[Mr. Lim]

Weird title for a thread, but it's a positive thing to cross the chasm.

I'm reaching out to the business folks involved in FIRST with this post for your opinions. "Crossing the Chasm" is a staple book in the business world which describes how to market a high-tech products to the mass-market. It's also a book that I think perfectly describes FIRST right now.

FIRST competitions (FRC, FTC, FLL) are products, and their target markets are changing and growing. Up until maybe two years ago, I considered FIRST something that only appealed to a very niche market: People with engineering backgrounds who were visionaries and innovators, who looked beyond the $6000 price tag, and didn't need to be sold on the concept of FIRST because they were already ingrained. More importantly, this niche market could inherently see past the rough edges and imperfections in the competitions, because we could justify the "engineering experience" as being far more important than the competition.

As FIRST grows, and the barriers for participating fall, we're attracting groups closer and closer to the mainstream. This is necessary to grow, but comes at the price of drastically modified expectations. The mainstream is just not as forgiving, and we're seeing the effects here on Chief Delphi. Reference the numerous threads on reffing, rules, etc. etc. etc. etc. All valid concerns, but generally you'll see the visionaries being more forgiving, but the mainstreamers not as much.

So hear me out: The FIRST process gets better every year, the rules are better written every year, the preparation of refs improves every year, the kit of parts improves every year, registration, logistics, support improves every year. We are just asking for more than ever, because now the mainstream is starting to look at us, and will point out every little thing that's wrong. This is a good thing.

But IMO, this is proof that FIRST hasn't yet crossed the chasm. We're at a stage where one group can live with the imperfections (visionaries), but the biggest and arguably most important one can't (mainstream). The fact that mainstreamers are even participating is a HUGE leap in the right direction, but the challenge is whether the mainstream stays, or gets alienated because the remaining imperfections aren't corrected appropriately, or in a timely fashion. FIRST and the FIRST community CAN pony-up and clean up the last few rough edges - invariably the last ones are the hardest ones to fix. It won't be easy, but that's what Crossing the Chasm is all about.

Take it as flattery that FIRST has done a great job so far: more mainstream people than ever are involved in FIRST and are predominantly the ones pointing out these flaws. The flaws are FAR fewer than years before, I personally can attest to that, but more mainstream voices are coming out of the woodwork, so there is more volume of complaints.

But if FIRST is on the cusp of capturing the mainstream... it'd be best served to listen and react carefully to their concerns - even if they are drastically different than us visionaries.

-Shawn T. Lim...