You realize I was speaking for myself, right? I never once said that SaaS doesn't provide any value to anyone.
But you need to understand that even as a self-employed business owner (product company, not contractor btw) for 15 years, I didn't take advantage of many SaaS tools at all.
Collaboration is niche. B2B productivity tools are a big industry (ironically I actually work for a company that makes a popular B2B collaborative SaaS product) but in the global scheme of things it's still a narrow niche when you consider the broad field of computing and software in general. Not everyone needs to be mobile, not everyone needs to collaborate. There are loads of software applications that can be local only, but there are few options because of the way our industry works.
And your post is timely because I was just thinking to myself this morning about how the biases that are introduced by Product Owners who come up with these ideas in work-related contexts, even if they are not the POs of B2B or "collaborative" software, still permeate non-B2B, non-"collaborative" software. They are in "work mode" and so they tend to think in terms of "How do I interact with this software. What do I need?" rather than actually considering the use cases for their every day users.
Take gaming, for example. Multi-player gaming is quite popular and those who seek it out ought to have options there. BUT ... I stopped gaming in large part because the industry went all in on online multiplayer and single player gaming options became more difficult to find. It's not that they don't exist anymore, it's just that I don't want a console that requires an Internet connection to play a story-based game like The Last of Us.
It's the following that pisses me off:
- The "all or nothing" mentality of our industry
- The ability for companies to change software that I use and pay for without me being able to decide if it's worth "upgrading" or not
- The lack of choices
I think it's pretty rich that we're both accusing each other of the same thing. You made the argument that because collaborative B2B tools are useful in a business context that it is "myopic" of me to want something that doesn't cater to that niche. I can make the exact same argument right back at you.
>>> but we went all in as if there were no alternatives and those of us who don't require mobility and would prefer that we can choose when to "upgrade" and what data to "share" were left behind
> You realize I was speaking for myself, right?
So "us" is just you? Your "us" is a very small minority, which is the point of the people who are responding to you.
But you need to understand that even as a self-employed business owner (product company, not contractor btw) for 15 years, I didn't take advantage of many SaaS tools at all.
Collaboration is niche. B2B productivity tools are a big industry (ironically I actually work for a company that makes a popular B2B collaborative SaaS product) but in the global scheme of things it's still a narrow niche when you consider the broad field of computing and software in general. Not everyone needs to be mobile, not everyone needs to collaborate. There are loads of software applications that can be local only, but there are few options because of the way our industry works.
And your post is timely because I was just thinking to myself this morning about how the biases that are introduced by Product Owners who come up with these ideas in work-related contexts, even if they are not the POs of B2B or "collaborative" software, still permeate non-B2B, non-"collaborative" software. They are in "work mode" and so they tend to think in terms of "How do I interact with this software. What do I need?" rather than actually considering the use cases for their every day users.
Take gaming, for example. Multi-player gaming is quite popular and those who seek it out ought to have options there. BUT ... I stopped gaming in large part because the industry went all in on online multiplayer and single player gaming options became more difficult to find. It's not that they don't exist anymore, it's just that I don't want a console that requires an Internet connection to play a story-based game like The Last of Us.
It's the following that pisses me off:
- The "all or nothing" mentality of our industry
- The ability for companies to change software that I use and pay for without me being able to decide if it's worth "upgrading" or not
- The lack of choices
I think it's pretty rich that we're both accusing each other of the same thing. You made the argument that because collaborative B2B tools are useful in a business context that it is "myopic" of me to want something that doesn't cater to that niche. I can make the exact same argument right back at you.