Mindshare 🧠

Mar 11, 2024 · 3 min read · 384 views

Writing software is now a commodity. It's cheap, doable from anywhere in the world, and no longer an effort that makes you stand out.

The hard part now is to get a mindshare with customers.

To be a thing they remember.

I strongly believe that every human has a few boxes in their head. Boxes where they remember brand names for specific problems. And those boxes are tiny.

If i would say: "Project management software" Which brands come to mind?

Most likely there will be 2-3 brands that come to mind quickly, and another 2-3 that you can list additionally as you actively think about it. 5-6 is an amount that most people can list that works with these kinds of products.

People who rarely work with project management software might only be able to name 2-3 at all.

There are hundreds if not thousands of project management tools online.

Being in those boxes is worth it. But the boxes are full.

If you are one of those products that people can keep in their head you are one of those that they will recommend, one of the few that will get significant consumer traffic.

It doesn't matter that a project management software has more features, has better UX, or is cheaper. If your product is the one that people can remember it will be the one that will get more customers.

Getting into these boxes is really hard. Not only do you have to convince people that they should add you to this box, but you have to also prove that you are better than the other products, and hence worth keeping. Fighting yourself to the top of this box is hard.

It's way easier, and cheaper, to convince people that they should create a new box.

Opensource Project Management Software.
Project Management Software for Architects.
Whatsapp-first project management software.
etc

A new box, if i believe that this box is worth keeping, is easier to create than fighting for space in a crowded one.

People think of this as finding a niche. I kind of disagree. I think of it more as positioning, framing, and branding. The new target market can potentially even be bigger than the original market.

Gaining mindshare is the hardest thing nowadays in our industry.

What is the box you want to be in?