Why Medium?

Why should Medium succeed where so many others have failed?

Ev’s post started a much needed exposé on the nature of Medium as a service and an opportunity for all sides to understand where it is now and express the vision and hope of what it might become.

So, why Medium?

Why should Medium succeed where so many others have failed? Is there any guarantee that it will? Of course not, but having this discussion in the open gives it a better chance for two reasons: inclusion and ownership.

Writing platforms are ten a penny or a dime a dozen (depending on what side of the Atlantic you’re from) so becoming a long term success requires passion and loyalty. Passion must be built and loyalty earned.

Having a discussion on product direction in public, and allowing users to contribute, fosters that sense of inclusion — “these are our plans, what do you think?”

Medium is used by a lot of very intelligent people (far more so than me) and, despite the most detailed of plans, there is always another angle, another opinion, another option that might not have been considered. The opportunity to suggest that option and, potentially, influence even the smallest decision instils the required sense of ownership. Not in a monetary or product sense but in feeling genuinely invested in the service.

Many products or services start with the best of intentions, acknowledging feedback and taking on board suggestions but, all too frequently, this cannot scale. In the rush to grow and monetise that connection is lost leaving the user feeling abandoned and without a voice.

The trick will be in maintaining the feeling of inclusion and ownership beyond the point it would normally become impractical.

I’m not too proud to admit that I pretty much begged for access back when Medium was invite only. It was fresh and exciting, add the cachet of having Ev’s name attached and it seemed the prudent thing to do for someone who loves to write. It might seem strange, then, that I left my account virtually untouched.

I will admit to feeling intimidated and it is only more recently that I felt the need to be taken, and take myself, more seriously as a writer. Cue the network effect.

Inclusion not only comes from the service but from the community that service is able to foster. By removing some of that intimidation, along with making it almost frictionless to post, Medium has made it possible to stand alongside more seasoned authors and utilise what that community can bring.

Medium certainly seems to be heading in the right direction.