Ever watched someone try your product for the first time?

That moment when their eyes light up and you know they “get” it?

It’s the instant when your product flips from interesting to absolutely necessary in their mind.

A friend showed me his Ooni pizza oven. He’d been talking about it for months, but I didn’t fully understand the appeal. I have a barbecue with a pizza stone. Why spend hundreds on a dedicated oven?

Then he popped in a pizza. 90 seconds later, I watched the perfect leopard-spotted crust emerge.

Tank brain engaged. I needed that oven.

This moment — this “flip” from curiosity to visceral need — is what separates massively successful products from the ones that struggle to find their market.

Look what happened when Purple mattresses launched its raw egg test videos. 200 million people watched a 300-pound glass pane drop onto eggs nestled in Purple’s unique grid design, compared with other mattress types to hilarious effect:

[Spoiler: The eggs don’t break on the Purple mattress.]

Suddenly, everyone who’d ever been bothered by pressure points or awakened by their partner tossing and turning saw more than a weird new silicone mattress. They saw uninterrupted sleep.

The strongest ‘aha’ moments connect to something WAY deeper than features. They trigger an emotional response that bypasses the usual decision-making process.

When Ember mug users first experience their coffee staying perfectly hot through an all-morning meeting, it’s only somewhat for the temperature. It’s mostly to have one daily frustration suddenly vanish. (A few years ago, I gave Ember mugs as client gifts. They were a huge hit.)

But here’s the challenge: Your ‘aha’ moment *might* not be what you think it is.

I’ve worked with many product teams who were certain they knew their killer feature.

Then we talked to customers and discovered something completely different was driving adoption.

Action for today: Watch your next three customer interactions like Sherlock. What’s the customer’s face doing when they first experience your product? At what point does their expression change, and resistance melt away? That’s your real ‘aha’ moment. Build your story around that, my friend.

Laurier

Product Payoff: When Snow Peak launched its titanium camping gear, they knew true hardcore backpackers would calculate the weight savings. But the ‘aha’ came from this: the perfect ping sound Snow Peak cups make, signalling a whole other level of quality.