All highly-valuable software products and companies have one thing in common. What is it?

I always note how all these experiences that I’m writing about can be built only once there’s a foundation of value that’s strong enough. Why? Because an experience will have the effect of multiplying whatever value is delivered to the user.

I’ll state the obvious: a 10x multiplier (the experience) applied to a 4/10 leads to a stronger result than when applied to a 2/10. This four or two would be in this case utilitarian value.

What does it mean in practical terms?

Let’s assume we can quantify value for audio players from 2002. The Walkman was maybe a 5. The iPod maybe a 6 (arbitrary numbers).

Even if the difference in utility between the two is not that big, the gap widens as the iPod is actually focused on building an experience: the white headphones, the wheel, a big screen etc. — they all were factors that submerged its users deeper into their product.

“So what’s this got to do with uncovering more value?”

One philosophical bit and then I’ll get to the point.

Nihilism, boredom with life, aggression towards innocent people, abuse and illegal/immoral activities are most of the time caused by a lack of meaning. A lack of direction in life.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, whatever gives us meaning undisputedly makes us feel better — it’s been proven empirically to you, I’m sure, and also biologically. Your neurochemicals fire up in a positive manner whenever you do something that gives you meaning. They put you in the zone.

Therefore, here’s how I think more value is brought to people: helping them with this pursue of meaning or amplifying it.

The education industry is most of the time birthing meaning.

People go to school, high school, university and as soon as they get to the end of the line in any of them, they’re struck with existentialism. So what do they do? Some prefer going into a Masters degree simply in order to extend this meaningfulness-fountain. (Not everyone though, don’t misquote me on that).

The iPod is on the other hand an amplifier for meaning. People find meaning in music. 93% of people listen to music. Most Gen Z’ers listen to music while they study.

“So what’s the bloody takeaway for a tech company here?”

You can either help people feel meaningful or amplify their already-existing feeling.

That’s the essence of what most products do, especially software products. Every single goddamn company who’s bought your B2B SaaS is doing so because at least one person finds it helpful in this quest for life — i.e. it gives him/her meaning.

Now you might be cynical and say “Daniel, I’m more than sure this one person from a client company is not now feeling as if she’s on a mission to save the world because of buying my product. They just want to do their job.”

To which I’d say you could be right. They’re doing their job. What I meant is that (and the reason why I wanted to address this objection is because) “meaningful” can also be attributed to the company’s goal.

In direct speech, it means this specific person is enabled to do their job better, thus the company’s goal is closer, thus their pursuit of meaning on a personal level is activated (and then the neurochemical consequences I’ve mentioned earlier happen from time to time).

You don’t have to be feeling in the zone for something to confirm that “reason of existence”. You can’t be in the zone all the time. However, it sits there, preventing you from asking “What am I doing with my life?”

The bottom line

So then, in a sentence it’s this: tech CEOs can uncover more value for their end users by contributing to their meaningfulness-meter.

I’d say this is a good question if the value delivery is not strong enough:

What is it that can make my users feel more meaningful?

Now, I don’t know exactly who your users are but here’s the good news: you do. And you might now where they spend their time, what do they eat, which books they read (or not) and who they hang out with.

And you can reverse-engineer what “meaning” means to them.

About Ch Daniel

I run Chagency_, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.

If I’ve brought you any kind of value, follow me and get in touch here: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email | Quora | YouTube (same content but in video)

I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app

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Illustration Credits: Formas Studio