Mike Swanson, on “backseat software” that aims to control you, rather than the opposite:

As the marketing adage goes:

People don’t want a drill. They want a hole in the wall.

The drill is just the tool. The outcome is the job. Nobody wakes up and says, “I’d like to buy a new drill today!” Well, except drill enthusiasts, I suppose. Likewise, nobody wakes up and says, “I’d like to buy a new app today!” In fact, your app is in the way of their objective.

I could argue that nobody wants the hole either.

What they really want is what comes after the hole. They want to hang photos of family and friends, souvenirs from trips, and artwork that makes a room feel like home. The drill and the hole are both just steps along the way.

That distance matters. The further a tool is from the real human outcome, the more invisible it should be. The drill doesn’t ask how you’re enjoying your experience drilling. It doesn’t upsell you on premium hole-making. It exists to disappear the moment it’s done its job.

I don’t have much to add here, but it sure does feel like for a lot of major software makers, that end result isn’t even considered. I think even if you asked most people why they want a drill, they’d actually answer “to make a hole.” It takes just the tiniest bit of extra rigor to find the “real human outcome,” and I just don’t see that from larger software makers.