Great post, Tom. In my tiny corner of the SaaS startup world noticing the same things. Customer doesn't have time to call our API to integrate their data, no problem. Let's stick to their custom Excel format, which they already have that they export to from their CRM/ERP, and we'll ingest it to map to our data model.
We'll do the grunt work so they don't have to (their IT team doesn't have to). Removes friction and it's not hard to have AI do the Excel/JSON/CSV > data model mapping today. So it's easy to say YES as a startup/SaaS vendor than it's ever been.
Love the build-with analogy. The customer definitely has to trust that the gaps that they're seeing will go away over time (weeks, not months!). The other story here is they're not looking for point solutions as much as a "whole e2e workflow product".
Thanks, Sumit! Your e2e point is where this gets really interesting. Once you can tailor cheaply, customers stop wanting point solutions and start expecting the whole workflow. That's just the Pancakes Speech applied at the product level.
As a Solutions expert and now Product Owner...I am fully on board with the Build-With concept!
Insightful, thanks Tom!
Great post, Tom. In my tiny corner of the SaaS startup world noticing the same things. Customer doesn't have time to call our API to integrate their data, no problem. Let's stick to their custom Excel format, which they already have that they export to from their CRM/ERP, and we'll ingest it to map to our data model.
We'll do the grunt work so they don't have to (their IT team doesn't have to). Removes friction and it's not hard to have AI do the Excel/JSON/CSV > data model mapping today. So it's easy to say YES as a startup/SaaS vendor than it's ever been.
Love the build-with analogy. The customer definitely has to trust that the gaps that they're seeing will go away over time (weeks, not months!). The other story here is they're not looking for point solutions as much as a "whole e2e workflow product".
Thanks, Sumit! Your e2e point is where this gets really interesting. Once you can tailor cheaply, customers stop wanting point solutions and start expecting the whole workflow. That's just the Pancakes Speech applied at the product level.
Is the idea that the new paradigm offering enables the customer to do the customization with AI tools? Moving from product to platform?
If not, is there a difference in the build-with tech architecture or is it fundamentally a mind shift within the product team?