Technology Should Solve Problems

Technology should solve problems. It used to. Apps and systems used to add functions that customers needed as they strove to be the best option for purchase. Competition for the customer drove innovation. But somehow along the way we have faltered. Instead of asking “How can we help our customers?”, companies seem to be asking “How can we increase our average revenue per customer?” Both questions can lead to higher revenue, but only one earns it.

I remember buying Minecraft for my son for $8. That's it. Pay eight bucks and play forever. One product, one price. Fantastic game, so I bought it for myself as well as my son. Now I have to have an account that ties all my data together. Minecraft is no longer eight dollars. Nor is it 20 dollars, which would be understandable with inflation. Minecraft costs…well I don't know how much it costs me. Game is still great. It has new stuff in it, so I believe it is worth more than $8. I just don’t know how much I actually invest in it.

I want to go back to innovation for customer value. It's not an easy journey. Products are tied into ecosystems built to lock us in. Micro businesses and individuals deserve a fair opportunity to invest into additional tools that help them service their customers, not be nickeled and dimed by massive tech companies increasing revenue without increasing value. 

To be clear, I’m not against the concept of subscriptions, but only if it makes sense for the value being provided. Eventually a scaled business will get to this point. But a growing business, or a small business that intends to stay small, often does not get the value for the recurring subscription they must pay for tools. And they face more painful switching costs when their data is locked in to a third party tool. 

We talk a lot about wanting to support small businesses as consumers, and how they’re the backbone of the economy. We owe them the same support as B2B suppliers.