Moore believes visionaries and pragmatists have very different expectations, and he attempts to explore those differences and suggest techniques to successfully cross the "chasm," including choosing a target market, understanding the whole product concept, positioning the product, building a marketing strategy, choosing the most appropriate distribution channel and pricing.

On the contrary, innovativeness, if measured properly, is a continuous variable and there are no sharp breaks or discontinuities between adjacent adopter categories (although there are important differences between them)"[2][3] A 4-year "concept formation study" conducted by the Diffusion Research Institute (DRI) and published in 2021, documents the origin of the chasm concept, beginning with its creation at Regis McKenna Inc. in the Pacific Northwest.

[4] The DRI study concluded the fundamental theories in Crossing the Chasm, including the concept of a gap or chasm between the early adopters of a product and the mainstream early majority, were developed in the late 1980s by Lee James and Warren Schirtzinger, consulting professionals working at Regis McKenna, Inc.[5] Moore and his publisher originally thought that the book would sell around 5,000 copies.

Moore attributes this to word-of-mouth marketing, resonating initially with high-tech managers, then to engineers, venture capitalists and finally business schools.

The pre-chasm concept was suggested as an extension to Moore's model, arguing that the phase prior to the "chasm" is left unintended and that it, driven by technology commoditization and lean startup principles, requires an ambidextrous[clarification needed] approach to product development alongside marketing to achieve product-market fit.