The Hierarchy of Consumer Buying Behavior

The Hierarchy of Consumer Buying Behavior attempts to capture how market competition drives consumer choice power. As more products enter the market, the pickier a users gets to be with who gets their time, attention, money, data.

As a user...

• I'm first concerned with solving my problem.
• Once many products can solve my problem, I'm concerned with finding the product that can most reliably solve my problem.
• Once many products can solve my problem reliably, I'm concerned with finding the most usable solution.
• Once many products can solve my problem reliably and are usable, I'm concerned with finding the solution that I most resonate with.

This pattern applies across all markets. Take the evolution of note-taking apps, for example.

1. Can it capture my thoughts? (Capability)
   In the early days, the bar was low. Features like rich media notes, cloud sync, and OCR were obvious differentiators. Early web-based apps like Google Docs and the first version of Evernote won users simply by providing essential features that weren't available elsewhere.

2. Can it capture my thoughts reliably? (Reliability)
   As capability became commoditized, reliability emerged as the differentiator. Sync conflicts, crashes, and data loss became deal-breakers. Evernote initially dominated this era with robust cross-platform support, but began to slip as performance issues surfaced. Meanwhile, Apple Notes gained market share by prioritizing stability and dependable synchronization across devices. Even today, for many, Apple Notes "just works."

3. How easily can I capture my thoughts? (Usability)
   With reliability becoming table stakes, competition shifted to usability. Bear attracted users with its clean, minimalist interface and intuitive tagging system. Roam Research revolutionized the market with its bidirectional linking and frictionless thought capture. Notion simplified complex organization with its flexible blocks and databases. Each won market share not by adding more features, but by making existing capabilities more intuitive and accessible.

4. Do I resonate with the product itself? It's makers? The community it attracts? (Feeling)
   The current competitive frontier centers on resonance and identity. Notion has cultivated a vibrant community with shared templates, aligned content, and a calming aesthetic. Obsidian appeals to users who value local storage, privacy, and customization. Roam Research attracts academic and intellectual communities with its knowledge graph approach. These products maintain premium pricing and loyal user bases not just because of what they do, but because of what they represent and the communities they foster.

This progression illustrates a universal pattern: yesterday's competitive advantage becomes tomorrow's baseline requirement. To drive mirgration from existing products, you must match or exceed the market standard at all preceding levels while delivering meaningful advantages at the next frontier of competition. Products that understand their category's current competitive rung can focus innovation where it matters most, rather than overinvesting in areas already considered table stakes by users.

But as AI increases speed to market, it also means products are forced to ascend the layers of this pyramid faster than ever in order to compete. This creates increasing incentive to move fast.

Beware. A pyramid built upon weak foundations, will surely crumble. History proves this time and again.

• WeWork rallied community hype but stumbled on real‑estate fundamentals (its valuation plummeted from $47 billion to under $10 billion amid intense public scrutiny).

• Juicero dazzled with sleek design yet failed to deliver core functionality.

• Theranos promised groundbreaking science and collapsed under scrutiny.

In the spirit of all truths eventually coming to light, the lesson is to deliver speed by way of competence, not haste.

Speed and quality aren’t actually at odds—they’re often positively correlated...Skilled teams that have mastered their craft move faster because they know what works and can quickly iterate, making decisions and improving the product in real time.

• Nan Yu, Head of Product, Linear

Cautionary tales aside, when respected, The Hierarchy of Consumer Buying Behavior is a powerful tool for understanding how to build products that compete.

Footnotes

1. I found Delight comes last from Matthew Strom after I wrote this. It's a great read and I recommend it. But it also made me aware of not being the first to have this idea. Aarron Walter came to a very similar conclusion in his 2011 book, Designing for Emotion.