Adoption Physics

We’ve run dozens of experiments to optimize the funnel in our product. While we improved the overall quality of the funnel, we reverted back to the original design after trying to remove it twice. New trials improved, but downstream metrics shifted.

And that’s the thing about a funnel: you can’t change parts in isolation without affecting the whole. A change in the top of the funnel will impact the bottom.

Let’s back up. What even is a funnel? And where did it come from?

The term “funnel” comes from 19th-20th century sales and advertising. In 1898, Elias St. Elmo Lewi coined the AIDA model:

Attention → Interest → Desire → Action

The AIDA model expressed the mental stages a buyer moves through. Then marketing in the early 20th century expanded on this idea by illustrating a funnel as an inverted triangle. It showed that many people start at the top, but only some of those people reach purchase. This is the “sales funnel”.

In software, the same funnel became a “conversion funnel” to show the ordered steps a user takes to reach a meaningful outcome. These funnels became less about persuasion and copy and more about reducing friction. Each step is instrumented and analyzed with intense precision in an effort to optimize conversion rates.

Friction is the word we use a lot while working to improve our product’s funnel. If there’s any friction in the process, can we remove it and make it easier to move to the next stage? But humans don’t always follow a neat path when using software. So funnels turn into flywheels or loops or jobs-to-be-done instead. The metaphor and language change, but the underlying concept remains the same.

Let’s look at three different scenarios:

1. Customers start using your product.
2. Your team starts running a process.
3. Your kids start learning a behavior.

What do they have in common? Adoption.

In each scenario, something is being adopted.

Customers adopt your product because it solves a problem they need to solve.

Your team adopts a new process because it improves how the team works together.

Your kids adopt a new behavior because it models the core values of your family.

Each scenario is driven by a tension.

Success is predicated on whether or not the tension can be overcome. Will the forces of activation beat the forces of entropy?

Will they see it?

Will they notice it?

Will they care about it?

Will they use it and keep using it?

Will they tell other people to use it?

Adoption requires work before and after to create sustainability. It takes a raw idea and converts it into a cultural norm, transforming the outdated funnel into a compounding system of growth.

In Attention Allocation, I posited that attention is our scarcest resource. How and where we, as humans, deploy our attention affects the quality of work. The same applies when you’re tying to garner attention from prospective customers. As AI increases the output of work, software becomes a commodity of exponential growth. You have to stand out in a crowded market. And then you have to hold the space. Attention is the acorn that becomes an oak; or squirrel food.

Adoption begins with attention, but it scales through trust.

This idea is called Adoption Physics, which lives in the Clarity Codex of the Claritorium and Strategic Momentum of Equilio.

The three pillars are:

1. Adoption Flow: The lifecycle of adoption.
2. Force Balance: The dynamics of adoption.
3. Human Systems: The layers of adoption.

Adoption Flow

We don’t just start doing things. Even if we don’t realize it, there’s a lot of premeditation before adoption. It starts with what we notice and moves all the way until we tell other people about it. Then they tell others until the original idea becomes a societal norm.

The Adoption Flow describes five stages as the lifecycle of adoption. It’s not a fixed linear path, either. It’s a continuum.

Adoption moves through predictable stages before becoming culture:

1. Placement: Idea exists in the environment.
2. Attention: Someone notices it.
3. Intention: They believe it matters.
4. Retention: They repeat behavior.
5. Propagation: It spreads socially.

Placement

Where does the idea appear in the environment?

Placement is the precursor to awareness. How an idea shows up in the environment helps determine the likelihood someone notices.

We live in a noisy world.

People create entire businesses for running ads, search engine optimization, billboards, commercials, and every other form of advertisement. Flashy marketing is all around us, vying for our attention. Every idea is trying desperately to be noticed.

But context matters.

Who are you trying to convince?

Where do they spend their time?

What do they care about?

How are they feeling?

Why right now?

Products are placed in posts on social media, marketing emails, organic searches. Even conversations about your product is a form of placement.

Placement is context.

Context informs decisions.

But placement at this stage is merely an environmental concern. How can you prime the environment so people notice?

If you’re selling software to researchers, place your idea where they gather. If they have a problem, what do they do and where do they go to seek out a solution?

A search? A forum? A conference?

Place your idea where they expect it. Give yourself the best chance to be noticed.

Meet your people where they are.

The Five Ways to Shape Context

Here are five ways to shape context and improve your placement:

1. Proximity: Place the idea where the problem naturally occurs.
2. Timing: Place the signal where the tension is most active.
3. Alignment: Place the signal where the right people gather.
4. Tone: Make sure the surrounding environment shapes how the idea is interpreted.
5. Density: Make sure the environment reinforces the signal.

Attention

What causes someone to notice it?

Attention is not just visibility. You also need to understand the human psyche to know how something actually resonates.

Attention is the moment when a signal intersects with a felt tension.

Placement makes sure the right context exists, but attention converts it to resonance.

Placement = Contextual Alignment

Attention = Psychological Resonance

Humans often overlook something unless it touches a problem, an interest, a threat, a desire. The thing in the environment needs to match an internal signal. And sometimes there’s an acute, known problem to solve. In that case, attention is easier to capture.

Consider two types of attention:

1. Active Attention: The person already knows they have a problem. Attention happens almost automatically if the placement is correct.
2. Latent Attention: The person feels the tension without naming the problem. Attention requires psychological recognition.

Placement to attention is the first conversion boundary. Knowing the internal feeling of those you’re seeking directs the approach.

Do they know their problem already? Or do you need to guide them to the realization?

The Five Methods to Capture Attention

Here are five methods to capture attention:

1. Name a hidden tension. If they can’t feel it, find the right language to articulate the problem so it resonates with them.
2. Mirror a known problem. When the problem is known and felt, show it to them and reflect back what they’re feeling.
3. Break an assumption. Attention spikes when something contradicts what someone expects to be true.
4. Surface a possibility. Help someone expand their sense of what’s possible so they can notice the signals.
5. Signal an identity. People notice things more readily when it aligns with how they already see themselves.

Intention

When does someone believe it matters?

Intention is the most important point. Just because they notice it doesn’t mean they care about it. This is where attention turns into commitment.

There’s a key ingredient to commitment you must pay special attention to: trust.

In order to make a commitment, you must trust that what you’re committing to will deliver on its promise. Commitment is risk.

Intention is the decision to try.

This is when someone uses your product for the first time. They’re making a decision to see if your product aligns with what they need. But there’s also much uncertainty because, at this point, they’re operating on assumptions. They don’t know if it will actually solve their problem. It’s your job as the creator to meet that expectation.

The Five Drivers of Intention

Here are five drivers of intention:

1. Clarity: The value is obvious.
2. Credibility: The solution feels trustworthy.
3. Simplicity: Trying feels easy.
4. Proof: Others have succeeded.
5. Safety: The risk of trying is low.

Retention

When does it become a repeated behavior?

Retention is repetition of an action. Intention is a single action. Your goal is to turn the single action into a habitual, repeated motion.

Placement and Attention come from value.

Intention is where value is tested.

Retention is where trust and quality compound.

Value gets them in the door; quality keeps them there.

A customer reported a bug when entering Japaneses IME characters into the prompt.

I knew it was a small change to prevent the enter key from bypassing the Japanese character selection. I started a Claude Code session and quickly fixed the bug.

I reported back to the customer and they said:

Who knew product could be improved this quickly! My mind is blown!

A bug in the software turned into an opportunity to not only build trust, but to show them quality improves. It’s a fluid process fueled by continuous feedback. You’d be surprised how many people still expect software to stay fixed. Or, if it changes, to move at a glacial pace. This shouldn’t ever be the case, even before AI. With AI, people will solve their own problems before you fix the problems in your product. Trust and quality create retention.

The Five Drivers of Retention

Here are five drivers of retention:

1. Reliability: The solution consistently works.
2. Ease: The behavior is easy to repeat.
3. Reinforcement: The value becomes obvious through repeated use.
4. Integration: The solution fits naturally into existing workflows.
5. Progress: They see tangible improvement over time.

Propagation

When does it begin spreading socially?

Propagation happens when adoption becomes socially meaningful. The value extends beyond individual use, people share it, and the benefits of network effects kick in.

The best customers are those who tell others about your product. Why? Because there’s automatic trust when those new customers come in. Credibility and proof are already there, increasing your chances of retention.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a common measurement that attempts to determine if a software product will propagate.

On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend this product?

There are, however, downsides to this question. For instance, you’re assuming the person asked this question is the type of person who recommends software to others.

For that reason, the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a frequent replacement.

On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with this product?

As with all survey and research questions, there are gaps. But this one is a higher indicator of whether your product is meeting the needs of the customer. Said another way: the better the value, quality, and trust, the more likely they are to recommend it.

The Five Drivers of Propagation

Here are five drivers of propagation:

1. Identity: Using or sharing the idea reinforces how someone sees themselves.
2. Story: The outcome is easy to explain to others.
3. Status: Sharing the idea enhances social standing or credibility.
4. Reciprocity: People want to help others avoid the problem they solved.
5. Visibility: The behavior is naturally observable.

Force Balance

Adoption Flow is the lifecycle ideas move through to emerge as socialized norms. At each step of the process, there’s a conversion that takes place.

Placement → Attention

Attention → Intention

Intention → Retention

Retention → Propagation

But there’s opposing forces at each conversion point.

I call them Activation Forces and Entropy Forces.

Activation Forces progress you forward; Entropy Forces hold you back.

Adoption progresses when activation forces overcome resistance.

Visibility > Noise

What makes something visible vs. lost in noise?

Activation Force = Visibility | Entropy Force = Noise

To get from placement to attention, you need to stand out in the noise.

Relevance > Indifference

What makes someone care vs. ignore?

Activation Force = Relevance | Entropy Force = Indifference

To get from attention to intention, you need to make something people want.

Value > Friction

What makes someone continue vs. abandon?

Activation Force = Value | Entropy Force = Friction

To get from intention to retention, you need to generate value and remove friction.

Identity > Inertia

What makes someone share vs. keep it private?

Activation Force = Identity | Entropy Force = Inertia

To get from retention to propagation, you need to align to the identify of your people.

Human Systems

What’s so interesting about Adoption Physics is how this idea applies globally. It’s not just something you can use to grow your software. You can also apply it to spreading ideas to your company, your team, or even your personal life. The power of identifying underlying patterns and principles is so you can then apply the concepts more generally. They’re transferable.

This model works everywhere. And it matters because adoption is a human process. We notice things, try them, and keep using them only when they align with wants, needs, and desires.

Adoption happens as ideas move through Human Systems, which are the layers of human behavior that determine how ideas are noticed, believed, repeated, and shared.

There are five layers of Human Systems:

1. Ecological: How do signals exist in environments before people notice them? This is Placement in the Adoption Flow. In Human Systems, it’s the the living environment and how people interact in it. We notice things in our environment when they’re placed in proximity to what we’re regularly exposed to. But they also require the same dynamics.
2. Perceptual: What determines what we notice? This is Attention in the Adoption Flow. In Human Systems, this is a psychological layer. We notice things for a lot of strange reasons, so understanding how humans notice is key to driving adoption.
3. Cognitive: How do we decide something matters? This is Intention in the Adoption Flow. In Human Systems, the pull of the new needs to overcome the push of the present. Often, the status quo is the biggest barrier to change.
4. Behavioral: How do behaviors become habits? This is Retention in the Adoption Flow. In Human Systems, understanding human behavior is how you form habits. There are triggers, habits, and rewards. It creates a cycle of compound progress when your product becomes engrained in someone’s behavioral rhythms.
5. Social: How do behaviors become culture? This is Propagation in the Adoption Flow. In Human Systems, social proof is critical. People look to others for approval. It’s wired into the human DNA to be liked and accepted to a tribe.

The Practice

The throughput of Adoption Physics is curiosity. To put these ideas into practice, engage in curiosity, ask questions, and experiment. The only way you learn is by doing. Try, test, and measure what you’re learning through intuition.

When you’re diagnosing adoption, ask yourself:

1. Is the idea actually visible in the environment?
2. Are people noticing it?
3. Do they believe it matters?
4. Are they repeating the behavior?
5. Are they signaling it socially?

Placement → Attention → Intention → Retention → Propagation

The Throughline

Adoption Flow is how you get people to adopt a new idea.

Force Balance is how you overcome entropy to make forward progress.

Human Systems are the layers of human behavior influenced by the same process.

These are the physics of adoption.

In a world where AI accelerates output, capturing, keeping, and sustaining attention is how your product succeeds. Attention Allocation is how you, the operator, focus your attention. Adoption Physics is how you transform adoption.

The Process