Rule X: Automation Philosophy

This one’s for tech product startup founders/leaders (more specifically, B2B tech): 
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There’s ONE big litmus test of whether you’re a real technology company, or aspiring to be one but falling short. It’s the automation philosophy (Secret: As with everything, philosophy reflects in data. There’s no philosophy data can’t back).

Ask yourself: Can 80% of my customers work with my company if it had nothing except its technology?

If the answer is a “no” — you’re not a technology product company, but a services company (Challenges? Easy to replicate, no differentiation except perhaps specialized skillsets of your people, low scalability, and hence, long-term challenges on value)

If the answer is a “yes” or “maybe” — congratulations, you are (on you’re on the way to being) a technology company that can run itself.

I like to call it Rule X (for convenience) — Any tech product company can serve 80% of its customers through purely the platform/technology, with no need for people/support/services to get involved.

But what of relationships, relationship management and strategic clients who need custom work and focus? This is a good axis to think through in detail, and I recommend being very flexible with your topmost clients (Top “x” customers bring usually between 40–60% of revenue for B2B technology companies). But therein lies a good nuance:

Measure your product strength using Rule X by counting “customers” and not “revenue”, and you’ll get clean signals.

EDIT: Elon Musk says this differently. “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken”.