Mark My Words Again
I foresee a brilliant future for business. One of transparency and simplicity. One that is devoid of contracts. One that relies on good design to attract and keep customers. One where the door to leave (with all of your data) is always open.
It is a glorious future.
Dramatics aside, I actually think it is here today. People are starting to realize that the value of design, transparency, and good customer service are significant enough to justify higher prices. When you have these ingredients then you don't need a legal or technological contract (a technological contract locks your data into someone else's system, preventing you from using a competitor's system) to lock someone into using your services.
That said, if your product becomes obsolete, you won't have such safeguards to protect your system. So you scrap it and create a better system. Since you are such an expert in the three tenets I stated above, your new product will quickly become relevant. You will also be able to port all of your old customers to your new product more easily then anyone else, providing another competitive advantage.
This is also a call to arms against bloatware. I am beginning to think that any software program should be rendered moot after just a couple of years. At that point development on that software should stop and development on the next solution should begin. All of the lessons that were learned in the first round should be carried over to the next product, making it a sleeker and more efficient product. The old product should not be removed from production, it should simply be left alone, so that those who enjoy it can continue to.
This design will encourage developers to make the information in their systems more easily transferable, both encouraging data openness as well as making it more feasible for them to transfer customers to their new, better product.
Note: I was inspired to write this prophetic piece by one simple image:
http://media.strongspace.com/screenshots/dashboard.png
It is a screenshot of a new web applications called StrongSpace (http://www.strongspace.com/).
What was so inspiring you might ask. Well it was the simple inclusion of account information on the front page, leaving little doubt about what you will be charged. Compare to this to the crap that cellphones put you through with roaming charges and charges for going over your minutes while there is no easy way to check your minutes... I mean it's light and day and it will be the eventual demise of companies that do not embrace the three tenets described above. Mark my words.
Note: Follow up article here:
http://entreprexplorer.blogspot.com/2005/08/fair-market-price.html.
It is a glorious future.
Dramatics aside, I actually think it is here today. People are starting to realize that the value of design, transparency, and good customer service are significant enough to justify higher prices. When you have these ingredients then you don't need a legal or technological contract (a technological contract locks your data into someone else's system, preventing you from using a competitor's system) to lock someone into using your services.
That said, if your product becomes obsolete, you won't have such safeguards to protect your system. So you scrap it and create a better system. Since you are such an expert in the three tenets I stated above, your new product will quickly become relevant. You will also be able to port all of your old customers to your new product more easily then anyone else, providing another competitive advantage.
This is also a call to arms against bloatware. I am beginning to think that any software program should be rendered moot after just a couple of years. At that point development on that software should stop and development on the next solution should begin. All of the lessons that were learned in the first round should be carried over to the next product, making it a sleeker and more efficient product. The old product should not be removed from production, it should simply be left alone, so that those who enjoy it can continue to.
This design will encourage developers to make the information in their systems more easily transferable, both encouraging data openness as well as making it more feasible for them to transfer customers to their new, better product.
Note: I was inspired to write this prophetic piece by one simple image:
http://media.strongspace.com/screenshots/dashboard.png
It is a screenshot of a new web applications called StrongSpace (http://www.strongspace.com/).
What was so inspiring you might ask. Well it was the simple inclusion of account information on the front page, leaving little doubt about what you will be charged. Compare to this to the crap that cellphones put you through with roaming charges and charges for going over your minutes while there is no easy way to check your minutes... I mean it's light and day and it will be the eventual demise of companies that do not embrace the three tenets described above. Mark my words.
Note: Follow up article here:
http://entreprexplorer.blogspot.com/2005/08/fair-market-price.html.
posted by The Entreprexplorer | 10:01 AM
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