Productivity software is indispensable for all of us. Dedicated tools for creating spreadsheets, writing down notes, managing our to-dos etc. ensure that we are productive in our professions. Incumbent vendors (e.g. Microsoft, Google) have dominated this space for many years — yet, there is a chance for new players to enter the stage. New challengers such as the E-Mail client Superhuman or the note-taking tool Roam Research can compete by developing highly opinionated products which deliberately omit flexibility. Instead, the software is stringently crafted around a very particular way of approaching a process, which is inherently seen as superior by the firm.
1st and 2nd wave of differentiation
Since the emergence of productivity software in the 1980s, it was sufficient for a long time to entirely focus on features (1st wave of differentiation). This is not surprising as a large value could already be created by adding desired features to very rudimentary software products. Microsoft, with its office suite, has emerged clearly as the winner of this era.
s onwards, cloud computing, especially SaaS as the new delivery model had a significant impact on the productivity space (enabled by the explosion of internet speed). Advantages such as low setup & infrastructure costs, high scalability and automatic updates have been so revolutionary (2nd wave of differentiation) that on-premise software has become (almost) obsolete. The success of Salesforce or Google’s G Suite is attributed to leading the way in offering productivity software as a service.
It is very challenging for a young company to compete on features with the large incumbents of the productivity space. Furthermore, SaaS has established itself as the default. So how can startups successfully differentiate?
3rd wave of differentiation = opinionated software
Your average e-mail client, browser software, spreadsheet software does not have an opinion regarding how it should be used. Instead, it provides a maximum of flexibility which is appreciated by the average user, yet, not optimal for particular target groups. This enables an untapped potential for challenger firms which are capable of two things (3rd wave of differentiation):
- Break problems for a very specific target group of users down into core pieces (see first principles thinking)
- Elaborate a firm opinion which UX represents the solution (optimize function rather than form) and rigorously execute on it.
#software #productivity-tools #superhuman #microsoft #entrepreneurship #ux #software-design #latest-tech-stories
