---
id: "framework-curiosity-window-alignment"
type: "framework"
source_timestamps: ["¶6"]
tags: ["marketing-strategy", "conversion-funnel", "adoption-mechanics"]
related: ["concept-curiosity-window", "concept-found-time", "quote-motivation-attention-information"]
steps: ["Motivation: The consumer must have a reason to care about the topic.", "Attention (Mental Bandwidth): The consumer must experience a genuine time gain that provides the headspace to focus.", "\\\"Accessible Information (Clear Front Door): The brand must provide readily available", "easy-to-access information exactly when the time gain occurs.\\\""]
speakers: ["Guneet Kaur Nagpal", "Amrita Mitra"]
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-foci-66-customers-willing-try-new-tech"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/11/research-when-are-customers-willing-to-try-a-new-technology"
sourceTitle: "Research: When Are Customers Willing to Try a New Technology?"
---
# The Curiosity Window Alignment Model

The **Curiosity Window Alignment Model** names the three mandatory prerequisites that must align *simultaneously* to open a consumer's [[concept-curiosity-window|curiosity window]] and move them from passive awareness to the first stage of exploration.

**The three elements:**
1. **Motivation** — a reason to care about the topic.
2. **Attention / Mental Bandwidth** — a genuine [[concept-found-time|time gain]] that supplies the headspace to focus (see [[concept-mental-bandwidth]]).
3. **Accessible Information (a clear front door)** — readily available, easy-to-access information supplied at the exact moment the time gain occurs.

**The failure modes** (verbatim logic — see [[quote-motivation-attention-information]]):
- *Motivation without attention is just noise.*
- *Attention without information is wasted opportunity.*
- *Information without motivation sits unread.*

**The marketer's job:** For complex sales you *cannot create the time* — bandwidth can't be forced. Your role is to supply the **third piece** (accessible information) at the precise moment the first two align, and to be ready when unexpected time appears (see [[quote-cannot-create-time]] and [[action-build-exploration-playbook]]).

**Enrichment note:** the triad aligns strongly with established consumer decision-making and learning frameworks (relevance/goal orientation, working-memory capacity, usability of the choice environment) and with Cognitive Load Theory. The *name* 'Curiosity Window Alignment Model' is a novel labeling rather than a previously established named model.