What is disruption? Learn from the story of Airbnb

In the Design Thinking process, Ideation is the key stage. In this stage, you generate plenty of ideas. To do this, you identify a lot of characteristics and use a lot of methods. Disruption of one of those characteristics.

Let’s explore ‘Disruption’ in detail.

You know, it’s a good rule of thumb to question everything that we believe. When we question the ‘accepted’, we start to see new possibilities.

Disruption is about turning the status quo on its head. It means thinking outside the box, seeing things in a new light, and innovating.

When you Disrupt, you look at things and question everything. This allows you to find new ways of doing things, which can lead to breakthroughs.

Let’s understand this through an example.

When it comes to travelling, we either travel for leisure or for business. In those days, we usually stayed at our friends (or family)’s homes or booked a hotel room. Then things started to change.

With the ecommerce boom, hotel bookings went online. Websites like MakeMyTrip.com and Yatra.com made booking a 3-start or a 5-star hotel room as simple as a few clicks. You could compare prices, read reviews, and book a room. All without stepping out of your house or making a phone call.

In the next stage, even smaller lodging facilities near bus stands went online. Oyo Rooms upgraded and standardized the quality, hygiene and their reliability. This allowed people to compare and book affordable rooms with no hassle.

As you can see, the how of booking hotel rooms has undergone plenty of changes in the last decade. Yet, the status quo was not transformed. Hard to believe? Read on.

Airbnb – True Disruption

In 2008, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk wanted to attend a conference. but couldn’t afford to pay the rent of the hotel room. In a moment of Eureka, they hit upon the idea of renting out an air mattress. This rent would partly fund their travel.

And thus, Airbnb was born.

This simple act of turning their apartment into a ‘bed & breakfast’ service disrupted how we look at travelling. Now, we don’t have to confine ourselves to commercial hotels or small, roadside inns. We could book a room in a beautiful villa overlooking the sea or a quaint cottage in the middle of a forest.

This has given rise to a whole new category of travelling, called ‘experiential travel’. People now travel to experience a place, rather than ticking it off their ‘places to visit’ list.

We can see the effects of this in the way people are now talking about their travel experiences. Instead of simply saying, “I went to Thailand and stayed in a hotel”, people are saying things like, “I stayed in this beautiful villa in Thailand and it was such an amazing experience”.

All this has been made possible by the Disruption that Airbnb brought about in the way we travel.

How to Achieve Disruption?

So, the next time you find yourself in a rut, remember to question the status quo and think outside the box. You never know, you might just come up with the next big Disruption!

Start with ‘why’?

I have to graduate. Why?

I’m a family man. Why?

I’m a schoolteacher. Why?

The question ‘why’ is the most fundamental question we can ask. It is the question that starts us on the journey of discovery.

‘Why’ is the question that allows us to see things in a new light and find new possibilities.

‘Why’ allows us to Disrupt.

What is disruption? Learn from the story of Airbnb