Increasing product value

So far, in my past posts, I have described the problem : how do we increase the value provided to end users in products?

Now for the solution:

Companies will shift their focus to providing end user value only if end users hold the power of how much and when they pay for the goods they receive. If there is sufficient revenue to be made directly by customers valuing their offerings high enough to make margins. Today, end users will not typically pay for a new product unless they are forced to pay upfront, because they have reached a defensive homeostatis with the industry and the government where they will avoid paying anything except when they are forced to by social, socio-moral or legal decree. Also, anything offered for free is looked upon with skepticism. (This unbelievably cool software download must be a Trojan horse or a virus or something – why else would it be free?)

The only way to break out of this stalemate is for someone to take the first step by providing products of high value to the user, allowing the user to use, value and pay after using it. It is crucial to invest minimally in such an effort and be willing to sustain several months, even years of low or no income. Hence, that restricts the domain to areas where the investment is very low, such as web based software and content, and once that is established, marketplaces for such software and content to be built, exchanged, etc. collaboratively.

The easiest way to ensure maximum value to end customers is to focus on solving problems that we understand as an end user. Any indirection (even if done as an expert user study) dilutes the clarity of the problem, and the solution diverges at least a bit from the user’s expectation (for instance, if we try to solve the problem of enterprise customers working on machine tools, we may not do as good a job, because we will never understand the space as well as we understand our own problems, as users of technology).

So, to summarize, the model is:

1. To create value in areas which have low initial investment. For example:
1. build software that addresses a problem that I personally face with technology
2. create content – writing, music, painting, photography – value of content is of course more subjective than technology, but it still is valuable to someone who enjoys such content.
2. Use/refine the software/content till I see value for others in it
3. Host the software/content for others to use
4. Provide the solution on a use-value-pay model where the user uses the software, and then values the product and finally pays what it is worth. For content, the user uses the content and then pays for it based on honest valuation of what it was worth to him/her.
5. Provide incentives and focus on valuing as separate from paying: i.e, the user can value software as something, but pay less because they cannot afford the amount they value it as.
6. User is under no pressure to pay. The value has to become compelling enough for people to value and pay for it. This is the strongest incentive for companies to be sincere about providing value.
7. If some valuable offerings are served up in this model, and if people start paying sincerely based on this model, then eventually more and more companies can tap into this potential market and model (analogous to the way companies are jumping onto the trend of the day – sharing video and images on the web, collective wisdom based web portals, etc.)

That is what I plan to do next. Work on creating software and/or content that is built and distributed based on the model I have described above. I will post updates on my progress as I reach significant milestones in this exercise - probably a few weeks from now.