What Brexit teaches us about building software
Why listening to the popular vote is bad for business (and possibly an entire country)
Disclaimer: The recent Brexit referendum and its consequences are without doubt, of great importance and a topic that I do not take lightly. Seeing the events unfold made me realise how the popular vote, inaccurate data and their consequences have many parallels with my views on building SaaS products. While this appears a strange thing to consider (for most people probably!) my love of politics and software made the comparison something I did naturally with great interest. Please take this article as intended — a simple, interesting observation and opinion I wanted to share — this is not a deep analysis of Brexit or a disrespectful take on a very serious subject.
A few long weeks have passed since the news broke that Britain had voted by a slim majority to leave the European Union. It was a shock to many yet most of the British government are respecting the decision and going ahead, preparing the country for a turbulent time and engaging in talks with other European nations on how we should tread this new and uncertain path.
While some hold this up as an example of democracy in action, there are strong arguments to be made that listening to a “popular vote” without understanding who voted or why they did so, can lead to a grave outcome in which very few benefit:
Ironically, many of the people who currently receive the most support from the EU voted to leave and could consequently be the worst affected:
“Brexit would widen the north-south divide as poorest areas stand to lose most. The ultimate irony at the heart of the debate is that the most Eurosceptic regions — the north, the Midlands and Cornwall — are the biggest recipients of EU funds.” The Guardian
The referendum was advisory only yet it has been interesting to see how the desire to prove that “democracy” is alive and kicking has meant the wider context and other information available quickly faded into the background of the debate. Perhaps we would be wiser to declare that the brute force of the popular vote isn’t democracy at all:
“Britain’s referendum wasn’t a triumph of democracy. It was an ugly populist fiasco — a race to see which side could achieve the right crescendo of anxiety and rage at the right time. How did such an important political question become so mired in hysteria and misinformation?” time.com
As the dust (kind of) settles and the news gradually sinks into a confused and divided nation, it’s clear that Brexit has some lessons that we can all benefit from.
Lesson #1: Imperfect information leads to imperfect decisions
In the aftermath of the results, it quickly became apparent that large swathes of the public had been misled by the leaders of the leave campaign who quickly retracted their key promises then quit their posts. Tales of Bregret began to emerge as searches for “What is the EU?” quickly became the hot Google trend the day the results were announced:
“Google’s trends suggest that UK internet users were not only mystified by what would happen if Britain backed Brexit — many seemed not to know what the European Union actually is.” Evening Standard
Imperfect information is a danger to us all. There’s a very broad range of entirely relevant reasons that people voted to leave but it was disappointed to see how misinformation led to people feeling let down by the political process and the leaders of the leave campaign.
As builders of SaaS products we should always think critically about the data we have available and take steps to ensure the information we use is as accurate and relevant as possible.
Spreadsheets, boards and forums full of feature requests with “plus one” votes make it difficult to understand priorities due to incomplete and stale information. Without proper insight into who feature requests have come from or why they were requested, you quickly fall into the trap of developing features which aren’t optimal in facilitating growth.
Lesson #2: The who matters
During the campaign many advocates for the remain vote were institutions that have deep expertise in the advantages & disadvantages of the European Union and that collectively have a huge impact on the economy. A graphic circulated on Facebook showing impressive support from MPs, The Bank of England, International Monetary fund, leading businesses and national unions.
While everyone’s opinion should be considered and respected it was interesting to note that when you segment (the alleged) supporters on each side, it could be argued that those with expertise on the impact of leaving the European Union should be given a higher weighting. Perhaps we should also consider the huge majority of young people (for whom this decision has the greatest impact) should be weighted higher given that they will live with the consequences of such a major decision.
A comparison would be listening to the feedback & feature requests of free triallers who have spent a few days kicking about your product when you could place your development resources into strategic features which are a high priority for your most important customer accounts and prospects.
Growth comes when you build the features which have the highest impact. The who has to matter but when the popular vote is involved, it simply does not.
Lesson #3: Always ask why
Another interesting effect of the aftermath of Brexit were the surveys that emerged about the reasons voters had chosen to leave. Much was written about a disenfranchised swathe of Britain who had been badly hit by government austerity measures. While this isn’t true of every leave vote, the referendum became the vehicle for a vocal and powerful protest; a vote against austerity, against the current government and against the elite:
“The vote in Britain to exit the European Union (EU) is a victory for those who believe in the right of self-determination and who reject the pro-corporate, austerity policies of the political elites in EU. The vote says no to the EU’s vision of a world run by and for big business. It is also a rejection of the European political elite and their contempt for ordinary people.” Rolling Stone
This reminds us all to ask why. A simple word but you always learn so much. When feature requests are made, it’s usually a fully described feature or function. Simply asking why gets you to the root of the pain point or issue.
The referendum has exposed a huge pain point but it wasn’t until the shock result that anyone dug deeper and looked beyond the vote itself.
Lesson #4: It’s the question that counts
How you ask a question matters greatly. The referendum question was binary; the only outcome of your vote was a simple “yes” or “no” instead of degrees of “more” or “less” involvement in the European Union. The most avid remain supporters do not think the European Union is perfect — there are, after all, many shades of grey. However, “all or nothing” is a hardline approach that does not capture the nuances of opinion:
“The reduction of a complex and graduated choice to a basic dichotomy simply does not reflect the position or serve the interests of the vast majority who will be affected by the outcome. What is more, and worse, the crude logic of either-or plebiscitary politics threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Having donned the referendum straitjacket, the British people — or rather their political masters — have been increasingly inclined to frame their arguments in mutually reinforcing all-or-nothing terms.” UK Constitutional Law Association
How a question is asked (and the question itself) should always be considered when capturing feedback & feature requests for your SaaS product.
Be aware of the limitations of your approach. “Do you want feature X or feature Y?” and “What features do you want?” are very different questions to “What are your biggest pain points?”, “How can we improve the process?” or “How can we make this work better?”.
An open feature request flow also opens up different feedback for you. Think about what you need to know then devise the most effective and appropriate approach because it’s often the grey that tells you the most.
Lesson #5: Context matters…and so does strategy
As we steam ahead with talks to leave the European Union, many feel that the wider context and strategy of Britain is missing from the post-referendum conversation.
Smart decisions are made when context and strategy are considered. You can, of course, only act on the information you have available yet the popular vote has bulldozed sanity, laying claim to the title of “The Only True Democratic Option”. Many cannot help but feel further debate is required taking other factors into account for example:
- The leave campaign won by a very slim majority
- The mis-information by the leave campaign only came to light following the result
- It appears that many did not understand nor appreciate the gravity of the vote
- Many who voted “leave” will be the most negatively affected by the loss of EU funding
- Uncertainty in the markets since the result was announced
- Leading financial institutions & businesses want to remain
- There’s no plan for what leaving the European Union looks like
- We now have an unelected Prime Minister
- Scientists are already being dropped from vital funding
- Young people (who this decision affects most) voted to stay
The strategy for Britain has to be considered in all of this; the popular vote from an advisory referendum must be considered alongside the other information available instead of a standalone and irreversible result that trumps all else.
Building features based on the popular vote has never been a good idea and if asked if I think that’s a good way to run a country, you probably already know my answer…
by Hannah Chaplin Jul 22 2016
Receptive helps SaaS product teams listen to the right people and build the right product, Learn more
Originally published at receptive.io on July 22, 2016.
