UX for Business

Quick Detour: Competitive Advantages

Real Competitive Advantages Are Long-Term

If we’re talking about the difference between products (or services!) that drive the business, one of the most fundamental differences, compared to marketing-driven products, is how you think about those products long-term.

A marketing-driven product is often more ephemeral; you might not intend for it to live or grow forever. Many times, the job of that product is to make a splash in the world, give a lot of people a great, memorable experience with the brand, and if it is dead in a year or two, that’s fine. Unsatisfying for people like us who make these things, perhaps, but it’s all part of the plan.

A revenue-driven product, on the other hand, should get stronger over time, and that will become very relevant as we design more complex products and business models.

If you have ever heard people talk about network effects, that is when something has more value when more people use it, like a social network. When two people use it, boring. But the more people who join, the more valuable it becomes. Users can’t leave, and competitors can’t win.

Lock-in or switching costs are similar ideas. Sometimes just using a software tool makes it harder to stop. Like Slack. The free version of Slack was just a way to get companies to start using it. But the more people who use it, the more difficult it is to ...