It was nine or ten years ago and my daughter was about 3 years old. We just wanted to go away somewhere warm for a week. We didn’t really mind where – we just needed a break. But with a child that age there are lots of restrictions.
No flight can be longer than two hours, for both our sanity and those of our fellow passengers.
Not too hot.
Some kind of kids entertainment is a must so that the parents can get a bit of a holiday too.
The list goes on and on…
Fast forward to today and planning a holiday is much easier. My daughter is older and now what we’re looking for has changed.
Yes, the underlying requirement is still a holiday, but we can search for the outcome WE want (“relaxing break, a chance to dip our toes in a different culture, some time for reading”) rather than what we need to keep a 3 year old happy.
As businesses, technology and the working world mature, what our clients look for has changed too. Gone are the days of “can you support our Linux server?”. Now – rightly – the focus is more on the outcome.
Our clients (mostly) don’t care about Linux. They don’t need to. They just want the result. They just want the service they offer their customers to be secure, available and scalable.
Whether you want a relaxing break away or you want system availability to rival Google’s, start by defining what you are trying to achieve. Only then should you worry (or, better, let someone else worry) about how to achieve it.
Has what your customers look for changed?
Photo by Link Hoang on Unsplash