Unleashing the Killer App

Book excerpt: When technologies, products, and services converge in radical, creative new ways, a killer app emerges-a new application so powerful that it transforms industries, redefines markets, and annihilates the competition. The steam engine, the cotton gin, and the Model T were all killer apps of their time. Today's killer apps spring from the digital realm: the personal computer, e-mail, and the World Wide Web. Tempted by the promise of such devastating power, companies large and small, from vast multinationals to lean entrepreneurial start-ups, are remaking themselves into organizations that nurture killer apps rather than succumb to them. How is it done? In this groundbreaking new book, strategists Downes and Mui identify the twelve fundamental design principles for building killer apps and offer a progressive guide to transforming your company into a place where killer apps are born. Unleashing the Killer App provides the tools, the techniques, and the proof that you need to incubate the killer app within your organization--and perhaps even release one.