Removing friction to achieve growth

Yesterday we talked about Frictionless Reputation. One way of looking at that issue is as a means to harness network effects. Simplifying and speeding the membership process reduces friction and expands a community. Friction is an issue that has been well understood in the eCommerce world for some years. In eCommerce the challenge has been to get the customer smoothly and easily to and through checkout without them abandoning their shopping cart. The issue is similar. The challenge being to get potential community members engaged before they abandon the process. AOL is involved in significant initiatives that address this issue. User authentication is one element of friction. The process of creating a registered userid is a big source of friction. OpenID is a great resource for minimising that friction.The user does not have to create yet another userid and password and associated information. AOL is in a position of leading the charge on OpenID.

One of my areas of interest is mobile. With Mobile and Web 2.0 location becomes a vitally important factor. One of the interesting sites operating in that space is Plazes. Plazes has depended upon software downloads to implement the location aspects of their offering. This is about to change. According to the latest information posted on TechCrunch they are taking steps to learn from Twitter and reduce the dependence upon software downloads. This is a positive step for an extremely interesting service.

So the lessons in building community must include:

• Harnessing network effects
• Reducing friction

Remove as many barriers as possible that prevent members from engaging. The benefits of network effects are negated if the pool of members is throttled back.

What are your thoughts on reducing friction? What steps does AOL need to take in devloping new services to reducing the barriers to participation? Share your ideas. Leave a comment below.