We don’t need more technology

We need understandable technology.

When we first started our technology company many years ago to help companies make documents automatically from their data, we had a lot of assumptions about our clients.

We thought they had a structured set of data already. We thought we could just connect to whatever system they were using, or at least allow them to import data from a CSV file into our product, and we would be off to the races.

Boy were we wrong.

To our surprise, most clients didn’t even have a system of record. They had no cohesive database or even spreadsheet they could pull data from, because it didn’t exist. For many clients, our software became the push they needed to finally consolidate their data, and eventually, we built an entire database platform for the sole purpose of solving our customers' data problems so they could use software like ours. We became the first database the customer ever had.

But why us, when other database systems have been around for decades?

What we learned

We learned early on that just because technology exists, it doesn’t mean customers will use it. Customers don’t buy the best software. They buy the software they understand the fastest.

Our product was uniquely good at that. We didn’t invent the database. We didn’t even make anything particularly new. But we made something approachable and easy to understand.

The problem with most software is not that it isn’t innovative enough. It’s that it leaves the customer behind in pursuit of innovation.

The larger the disconnect, the less successful your company will be, and the more customers will choose the status quo, even if it’s worse.

Before you think about creating more technology, consider whether customers understand what you’re offering and how to use it.

Creating more technology is seductive in that it looks more impressive on paper, in the same way expensive wine is perceived to be of higher quality. But the proof is in the taste. A good tasting wine will always leave your customers wanting more. An expensive but so-so wine might still garner interest, but only until something better comes along. The more customers understand your product, the better the taste. And your technology should be made with the intent to satisfy that taste.

It’s also easy to mistake disinterest for lack of function. If you’re not perceptive to the difference between a customer who is disinterested because your product lacks function and a customer who is disinterested because they don’t understand your product, you can very easily find yourself over-building, only to find disinterest worsen in the long term as your product sails further away from the understanding of your customers. (And as this problem worsens, the more tempting it is to build more stuff, perpetuating a vicious cycle.)

It’s important to understand that your company is not in competition with other companies. Your company is in competition with the status quo. The better customers understand you, and the better you understand your customers, the greater your chances at defeating the status quo. And that may be a lot easier to beat.