some products are skipping the line to become habits
delta 4 framework explained through ai adoption curves
in product management, most new launches follow a predictable rhythm. a feature rolls out, a few early adopters tinker with it, word spreads, adoption crawls along, and only then do you see mass usage. it’s a slow grind.
but every once in a while, a product doesn’t just get adopted — it explodes. not because of ads, not because of celebrity endorsements, but because users can’t shut up about it. they pull their friends in, they drop screenshots in slack, they forward links to their parents. it feels less like a launch and more like a movement.
this is what kunal shah calls the delta 4 effect. the idea is simple: if your product is at least 4x better than what came before, adoption doesn’t creep, it leaps.
that’s why chatgpt went from zero to 100 million users in two months. that’s why midjourney made “ai art” a mainstream phrase, not a niche experiment. that’s why perplexity is fighting to be seen as the google alternative, not just a shinier skin on search.
and here’s the kicker: with ai in the mix, delta 4 moments are happening faster and more often than ever before. the bar for “good enough” is collapsing. a pm’s roadmap that once aimed for incremental +1 improvements now has to think in leaps.
the delta 4 framework explained
most products improve on what came before them. a little faster, a little cheaper, a little prettier. those are incremental changes. nice to have, but rarely life-changing. users nod, maybe they try it once, but they don’t switch their default behavior.
kunal shah’s delta 4 framework draws the line here. the claim is simple: unless a product is at least four times better than the alternative, people won’t change habits. they’ll acknowledge your feature, maybe clap politely, but they’ll go right back to whatever they were using.
+1: slightly better. nobody cares.
+2: noticeable, but not worth switching.
+3: good enough for early adopters, but not mainstream.
+4: massive leap. people switch, people talk, habits form.
the delta 4 framework works because it accounts for human inertia. most products in the market hover around +1 or +2. they make incremental improvements, fight for attention, and bleed money on marketing. delta 4 products don’t need to scream for attention. they generate their own momentum.
the iPhone compared to feature phones. google compared to yahoo. chatgpt compared to typing queries into search.
delta 4 is why some products feel inevitable.
ai adoption speed and the shrinking delta 4 window
ai has put delta 4 on steroids. what used to take years to feel like a leap now happens in months. adoption curves are bending in ways the industry hasn’t seen before.
take chatgpt. it hit 100 million users in two months. facebook needed four and a half years to reach that milestone. instagram did it in two and a half. tiktok was considered lightning-fast at nine. chatgpt crushed them all.
the leap was obvious. the gap between typing into a search box and conversing with an assistant wasn’t incremental. it felt like skipping a whole era of interaction. for knowledge workers, students, and developers, it was instantly a delta 4 moment.
midjourney followed a similar arc. ai-generated images had existed for years, but they were clunky, inconsistent, and felt like toys. midjourney’s outputs suddenly looked like art. feeds filled up with surreal portraits, game assets, and fake pope jackets. within a year, ai art wasn’t fringe anymore, it was part of pop culture.
even the near-misses show the speed. products that feel like +2 or +3 today are being judged as failures, not works in progress. ai raised the baseline so high that anything short of delta 4 is invisible.
for product managers, this means the old roadmap math is broken. the playbook of adding incremental features and slowly nudging adoption no longer works. the market now expects leaps. and it expects them fast.
chatgpt and the delta 4 leap
chatgpt is the cleanest example of delta 4 in action. the difference between asking a search engine for an answer and getting a conversational response was not just faster — it felt like a new category of interaction. that’s the essence of delta 4: when the product experience feels like crossing a boundary you didn’t know existed.
for students, it replaced frantic googling and piecing together half-reliable blog posts. for developers, it meant skipping stack overflow rabbit holes and getting usable code in seconds. for writers, it turned the blank page into a collaborative draft.
and adoption reflected that. chatgpt reached 100 million users in two months. that growth shows momentum driven almost entirely by word of mouth. no one had to explain what chatgpt was at a party. someone pulled out their phone, typed a question, and everyone went “oh damn.” delta 4 spreads itself.
of course, chatgpt isn’t flawless. hallucinations remain its biggest flaw. a pm might dream of a delta 4 launch, but also quietly fear the jira board when customers file tickets about confidently wrong outputs. the product is powerful enough to change workflows, but inconsistent enough that users often double-check results. that paradox — breathtaking leap with shaky trust — is exactly what makes ai products different from earlier delta 4s like google or whatsapp.
pm’s watching chatgpt have learned two things: first, that speed of adoption can outpace even product readiness. second, that building trust at scale is now as important as building features.
midjourney, grok imagine, and the delta 4 of creativity
ai-generated images existed long before midjourney, but outputs were inconsistent, slow, or required technical expertise. midjourney changed that by combining a simple prompt interface with high-quality outputs, making digital art accessible to almost anyone.
user adoption numbers show the impact. midjourney launched publicly in mid-2022, and within a year, its discord community grew to over 1 million members, with 21 million members as of june 2025. prompts that once took hours could now generate polished, imaginative results in under a minute. this speed transformed workflows for designers, game developers, and content creators.
the delta 4 leap comes from how midjourney redefined expectations. a designer who spent a day sketching concepts could now produce multiple variations in 60 seconds, test them with peers, and iterate instantly. adoption grew naturally: users shared outputs on social media, inviting others in without paid marketing.
grok imagine, a newer entrant, shows similar potential on a smaller scale. while its community and feature set are smaller than midjourney’s, it highlights how newer ai tools continue to push creative boundaries and raise user expectations for speed and quality.
outputs aren’t perfect. prompts can produce odd or unusable results, and users must learn phrasing to get desired outcomes. yet the combination of speed, accessibility, and delight is what makes midjourney a delta 4 product. users integrate it into daily routines, experiment with it, and showcase results publicly — turning adoption into culture rather than just usage.
pm takeaway: delta 4 is often less about raw technical superiority and more about removing friction and amplifying delight. midjourney and grok imagine show that when tools are easy, fast, and fun, adoption accelerates faster than traditional campaigns could drive.
perplexity.ai and the comet browser: chasing delta 4
perplexity.ai launched with a clear mission: make search more conversational, trustworthy, and context-aware. the product combines real-time citations, conversational answers, and a clean interface. on paper, it looks promising. in practice, adoption shows the challenge of moving from +2/+3 to delta 4. most people still type simple queries into google or bing because switching habits is easier than learning a new interface. perplexity.ai improves the experience, but for mainstream users, the leap isn’t yet massive enough to change behavior overnight.
the comet browser nudges things closer. by integrating perplexity directly into browsing, users can get conversational answers without leaving the page. summarizing articles, extracting key facts, or researching products becomes noticeably faster. early feedback shows it can shave minutes (sometimes hours) off routine tasks. for a pm, that’s the kind of productivity improvement that could tip a product toward delta 4 if trust holds. also, the occasional funny hallucination or weird answer keeps users entertained, and annoyed enough to screenshot and share, which is basically free virality.
growth hasn’t matched chatgpt or midjourney yet. perplexity.ai reported over 1 million active users within months of comet integration. adoption is strongest among research-heavy professionals, students, and curious tech enthusiasts. errors and hallucinations still exist, reminding us how delicate delta 4 adoption is for ai products: impressive features alone don’t build habits, trust does.
for product managers, the lesson is clear: delta 4 requires more than clever features. lowering friction, fitting seamlessly into workflows, and consistently delivering value are crucial.
implications for product managers in the ai era
product managers are facing a new rhythm. the old playbook of incremental features, slow adoption, careful testing, still matters, but ai is accelerating expectations. delta 4 moments are happening faster and more often. a pm who waits six months to ship a “better autocomplete” might already be obsolete in the eyes of users who experienced chatgpt or midjourney.
speed and trust matter equally. a feature that’s technically brilliant won’t drive adoption if users don’t trust it. hallucinations, inconsistencies, or awkward outputs can kill momentum faster than any bug in the codebase. roadmaps need to factor in reliability as aggressively as innovation.
friction is the silent killer. even small steps between curiosity and usage (extra clicks, slow loading, confusing phrasing) can prevent users from experiencing the leap. delta 4 products remove friction almost invisibly. midjourney generates images instantly, encouraging experimentation. chatgpt integrates into workflows, so answers are ready when users need them. pm’s must obsess over these invisible barriers.
delight scales adoption. funny outputs, surprising results, or little “aha” moments spark social sharing that no paid campaign could buy. a pm ignoring the emotional side of adoption is leaving delta 4 on the table.
finally, ai changes the baseline for what counts as delta 4. what felt massive in 2015 now barely registers. pm’s must aim higher, test faster, and anticipate habits before they form. roadmaps are less linear now. think waves, not ladders. speed, trust, friction, and delight are the levers of modern product management.
pm takeaway: delta 4 is a mindset. building for habit, surprise, and trust simultaneously creates products that feel inevitable.
risks and false signals in ai product adoption
delta 4 adoption can be seductive, but ai products come with traps. a spike in usage doesn’t always mean a product is habit-forming or ready for mainstream. early enthusiasm can hide fundamental problems, and pm’s need to read the signals carefully.
hallucinations are the most obvious risk. a user might love chatgpt for drafting code or essays, but confidence erodes when outputs are confidently wrong. even small errors can reduce trust quickly, slowing adoption or driving users back to familiar tools. midjourney outputs sometimes produce bizarre or unusable images — funny, but not always functional. pm’s need to differentiate between outputs that entertain and outputs that genuinely solve problems.
another trap is the +2/+3 effect. products can feel noticeably better than existing solutions without triggering a habit change. perplexity.ai is a prime example. the interface is cleaner, the answers are cited, and speed improves research workflows. yet mainstream users stick to google because the leap isn’t compelling enough. pm’s must recognize when adoption plateaus despite positive feedback and iterate before momentum dies.
virality can be misleading. a screenshot of a wild midjourney render or a hilarious chatgpt hallucination spreads quickly on social media, giving the illusion of delta 4. these moments create attention but not necessarily habits. delight accelerates sharing, but pm’s must track actual usage metrics — repeat engagement, task completion, and retention — not just likes or retweets.
finally, speed of adoption can mask structural weaknesses. ai products can gain millions of users in weeks, but if the foundation isn’t reliable, the bubble can burst. building for delta 4 requires sustaining trust while growth happens at lightning pace.
pm takeaway: read metrics beyond surface-level excitement. distinguish between attention, engagement, and true habit formation. early adoption is promising, but delta 4 requires consistency, trust, and low friction to stick. humor and delight can help, but they are accelerants, not guarantees.
closing reflection on delta 4 and ai product management
delta 4 goes beyond checklists and features. a product reaches delta 4 when users switch habits and rarely go back. chatgpt, midjourney, perplexity + comet — they all reached different parts of this peak, and each teaches pm’s a lesson in speed, trust, and delight.
product management in the ai era is less about incremental improvement and more about orchestrating leaps. small features still matter, but the expectation bar is higher, and the window to impress users is shorter. a product that feels only slightly better gets ignored. a product that surprises, delights, and removes friction spreads itself.
humor, quirks, and little surprises are part of the strategy. people share weird outputs, laugh at hallucinations, and in doing so, become inadvertent advocates. delight amplifies adoption — not because it’s flashy, but because humans respond to memorable experiences.
the underlying lesson is simple: combine speed, reliability, delight, and trust in a way that changes behavior. track adoption metrics beyond surface-level excitement. anticipate user habits, remove friction, and iterate fast. delta 4 is achievable, but only for those who design for both mind and workflow.
pm takeaway: i cannot stress this more - “delta 4 is a mindset”. it’s about building products that feel inevitable, memorable, and trustworthy, while embracing the quirks that make humans engage. ai isn’t slowing down, and neither can product managers. the future belongs to those who understand how to turn leaps into habits.