Teaching is selling is supporting
Some products are a manifestation of a company's underlying beliefs, rather than the result of disinterested market research. “Opinionated software” is one form of this type of company. The creators believe that things should work in a particular way, and so they design their products accordingly.
37Signals popularised this idea in their book, and you could never accuse the leadership there of not having strong opinions, even if they don’t allow everyone on their team to be quite so opinionated. Their latest product, Fizzy, embodies their perspective on the Kanban methodology.
As a general rule, the larger companies get, the less interesting they become. In trying to appeal to almost everyone they tend towards the boring middle, and fail to really excite anyone. That means there is an opportunity for smaller companies to differentiate themselves by being opinionated. They build from a clear perspective, and find the people who are engaged by it. It also means turning off some people who might otherwise be interested in paying you money, but who disagree with your decisions.
In the latest episode of The Supportive Podcast, out now on your feed, I talk with YNAB CEO Todd Curtis. YNAB (formerly You Need A Budget) is a perfect example of beliefs becoming products. Founder Jesse Meecham and his wife Julie budgeted as college students according to (what would become) their 4 rules, and quickly found other people were interested in applying those rules themselves. Jesse initially sold it as a spreadsheet... a very opinionated one.
The same system, tweaked over time, remains at the core of YNAB today. The software will only truly work for its customers if they accept the financial principles it was built to support. That means YNAB's job is not just selling, but teaching. In fact, as Todd mentions in our chat, they often think of themselves as “an education company that makes software to keep the lights on”.
When you have a way of thinking about a problem that connects with people, then teaching, selling, marketing, and supporting all start to blur together. At YNAB the support team are not just answering the technical questions, they’re helping people figure out how to get control of their money.
"...our support specialists love nothing more than a question about those mindset things, those spending decision sort of questions"
As AI-driven self-service takes on a larger chunk of the basic support work, space will be created for smart, well-trained, and empowered people to help their customers in deeper ways, moving them towards their real goals.
Are you teaching your customers, as well as supporting them? What are people better at because they get help from you?
P.S. You can find YNAB's original Support Ethics document linked in the podcast episode show notes. It's worth reading, even though it's since been updated and enhanced.
