Criticize by creating
Build something distinctly different and then explain it.
A lot of software, a lot of tools, get built to scratch an itch. See a problem, build a solution.
Most of what we do in the tech world and in AI is critiquing what someone else has already done, the status quo, or just the way things are.
I’ve been a fan of 37signals for a long time, a customer sometimes, but a fan for a long time.
They recently relaunched Basecamp.com. It’s basically a critique of their competition without naming the competition. Part of the launch is a letter from Jason Fried calling out what he and his team see as problems in the space.
What I like about their approach is that they often write to critique how things are done, to draw attention to things they don’t believe in, and to highlight things they do believe in. But rarely is it just a critique.
They build what they believe should be built, and what they build is often a direct critique of what already exists in other tools.
You can write a takedown. You can tell everyone why X thing is broken. You can dunk on the competition. That’s critique by commentary. It’s cheap to produce. It’s easy to ignore. It leaves the broken thing still standing there.
And what we often do in this business is that we build the thing that should exist instead. This is critique by construction.
When we build something that is distinct and different, it can make the alternatives look stale and old. Getting current customers or prospective customers to even just compare what you’re building to the way things have always been done is an argument made quietly.
I love this about technology. About building a business. We get to look at things that we don’t really like and dream up and build ways of doing it better.
The Godard move
In 1962, Jean-Luc Godard quit writing film reviews and became a director. The line he gave to Cahiers du Cinéma: “Instead of writing criticism, I make a film.”
His films became the argument against the studio filmmaking he’d been critiquing in writing.
A bit closer to home for most of us: Marc Benioff didn’t sit at Oracle writing op-eds about how on-prem CRM was clunky and dying. He built a browser-based alternative and ran the famous “No software” campaign. Salesforce was the critique.
What I’ve always liked about 37signals is how they approach underdoing the competition. They don’t win by out-features or by attacking. They win by doing less, by doing it better, and by shipping their own opinionated alternative to what already exists.
Basecamp.com, the new version, feels 20 years old, and it was definitely on purpose. It’s criticism with no commentary required. But of course it’s Jason Fried and DHH, so there was commentary.
The punch-up trap
When you’re a small team, it’s almost expected that you’ll punch up at incumbents. That’s the scrappy startup energy: you win the room by naming what’s broken with the big guys.
It can get attention, but I’m not sure it actually serves anyone. Scrapping and clawing your way into a market by pointing at someone else’s product is exhausting and inevitably forgettable.
The other path is to take a distinct point of view, hold it loudly, and be proud of it. Let the right people find you. The more our customers say they like that we have one, the more I notice they are not just receiving it, but actually shopping for it.
As Seth Godin called it, “the tribe”: people like us do things like this. You can add to that and say people like us don’t do things like that. We do things like this. You can stand for something and against something.
A spin on scratching your own itch
A lot of software starts with someone scratching their own itch. Flip that framing a bit, and you get: you critique what exists today, then build the antithesis: the thing, the workflow, the ethos that runs counter to what you can’t stand.
It’s a little spin on “be the change you seek.” Be the product you seek.
Build, then explain
Building isn’t free. Commentary, though, is cheap, fast, and easy. And because we’re in business, we actually have to tell people about what we’re building, so it’s not enough to just criticize by creating.
We have to be clear about what we’re building and why we’re building it. We have to tell people about it.
This is the brand voice section: the public-facing one. You still have to talk the talk, but you also have to walk it out. Be distinct and different. Hand people the point of view by demonstrating it.
Attract more people to you and the thing that you’ve built. Keep making the argument every time someone sees it and uses it.
In sum, it’s amazing that we can build in response to things that we don’t like or to situations that we want to improve. When we do that, we have a great story to tell, and we need to make sure that we tell it.
Build it, then explain it.
So what are you building in critique of? Let me know. I’d love to hear your point of view on it.
Peter