Unleashing the Killer App:

Digital Strategies for Market Dominance

A book review by Girard Ruddick

While “Unleashing the Killer App” may not be as entertaining a read as Michael Lewis “The New New Thing,” or as exciting a story as Michael Wolff’s “Burn Rate,” or as engaging a vision as Bill Gates’ “Business @ the Speed of Thought,” Larry Downes and Chunka Mui’s book is still a thought provoking “must read” for anyone who is looking to start a business or evolve an existing venture in today’s digital world.

The book is structured into three parts – Digital Strategy, Designing the Killer App and Unleashing the Killer App. Unfortunately, the structure and the style of writing (overly academic in section one and too heavily case ridden in section three) caused the book to feel like three different works, which personally felt frustrating at times. Still, I particularly found part two to be the most interesting and engaging of the collection. This section provided 12 design principles that formed the basis for the book’s framework for exploring or revisiting a business’ role & purpose in the digital age as well as creating a killer app that will secure that role into the future.

The principles were broken out into three stages which the authors considered “analogous to the major tasks of any complex problem of design” – Reshaping the Landscape (1-4), Building New Connections (5-8), Redefining the Interior (9-12). While these stages did not at first seem familiar to me they were logical in their construction, organization and inclusion of each design principle. Though our assignment asked us not to unduly describe each topic the book covered I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t at least list the 12 design principles outlined through out part two. They are as follows:

1) Outsource to the customer

2) Cannibalize your markets

3) Treat each customer as a market segment of one

4) Create communities of value

5) Replace rude interfaces with learning interfaces

6) Ensure continuity for the customer, not yourself

7) Give away as much information as you can

8) Structure every transaction as a joint venture

9) Treat your assets as liabilities

10) Destroy your value chain

11) Manage innovation as a portfolio of options

12) Hire the children

The concepts found in the words of this list alone jump-started my strategic thinking process as I began my summer effort of building a viable business within Darden’s Progressive Incubator. Additionally, the authors thoughtfully incorporated short case examples that elaborated (without distraction) each concept/principle they put forward.

I found myself reading the descriptions, explanations and case examples accompanying each concept with an eye toward how I could apply these insights into my own design process. I particularly found principles one and three through six of extreme value. Mine is a business that is very customer focused and committed to providing a customized & personalized experience and end product for each individual user. Therefore, having a customer centric point of view is critical and enhancing the customer’s experience whenever possible - even (or perhaps especially) to the point of letting them do more of the “work” to ensure they get what they want - is equally vital. My favorite five principles, and really all 12 when considered thoroughly, have provided a foundation upon which we have begun building our service and business – a service we expect to become a killer app in it’s own right.

The authors quoted Alan Kay as saying “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” While this may be true, a business should wish to maintain that future as its own and sustain its competitive advantage within this future by creating and unleashing killer apps. In their book, and in part two in particular, Downes and Mui have created a strong framework with which a business can embark upon this process.