The worst case is the upper right quadrant. The product must be perfect the first time, e.g., start-ups going against existing competitors. Used in conjunction with each other, a product's position on the newness map identifies key marketing issues. Then the opportunity risk map helps determine the required trade-off between speed and accuracy. The product life cycle and technology adoption life cycle relate to each other closely.
People often confuse one with the other.
The typical product life cycle is shaped like an s-curve, plotting sales for a product category against time. The technology adoption life cycle is shaped like a bell curve. Each standard deviation represents the different categories of buyers, arranged left to right as they would be most likely to try a new product. Often, a product life cycle curve is drawn with these categories of buyers mapped on to it. Thus, the location of a product on the product life cycle curve has a lot to say about the characteristics of the customer most likely to purchase.