Data is the difference.
At the beginning of my career I worked at a company that had this as its motto, and the truth then was as strong as it is now. If you are building software to solve user problems, you may be in an excellent position to do something amazing with the data you are managing. Even if it’s not your product’s core capability, it is likely that you are amassing an incredibly valuable data asset.
Think beyond just how to enlighten your users. I’ve come to think of this as “easy insights,” and not because it’s necessarily easy to provide valuable insights, but because this line of thinking is the more obvious approach. Yes, while architecting your platform be sure it can extend to provide data, but at this point this is table-stakes thinking. Don’t stop there.
Think bigger. Consider the honeybee — going about its business for the sake of the hive, collecting pollen, buzzing around, making honey. This is your product. It’s focused on a clear problem, well-defined users, and has a software platform that you and your teams build and care for. Without even realizing it though, the honeybee, as a pollinator, transfers genetic material in a random fashion across a region, and is therefore responsible for sustaining nearly all life on earth!
A tangible example of this is reCAPTCHA. Look it up, enjoy the read. What amazingly valuable indirect data outcomes result from your platform’s primary function? Ask this regularly. Your platform may be a pollinator.