Why do you have voice?
Benedict Evans posses this question in an excellent recent essay. Essentially prompting people to think about the real use cases and human problems that video conferencing haphazardly solves. He is spot on.
We have already seen tools like mhhmmm seeking to tackle some of the real problems that users have beyond the initial friction of getting on a call reliable, with good video.
A better question
Although, I do not fully agree with this framing of why someone chooses to do something. I think it is bit more subtle than that. What and how are more accurate in my opinion.
Let me explain.
What do users want to be better at?
How does the tool (in this case zoom) enable you do it?
Sticking with the Zoom example, I have seen so far a few things that people want to be better at:
Showing houses via Zoom
Going to church virtually via Zoom
Doing product review via Zoom
Doing user research and usability test via Zoom
People going on dates via Zoom
The list goes on and on and on.
The point being that in every single one of these cases, in order for the person to be successful, or more successful, the tool should change, because the person should change!
What are we trying to improve?
Too often software is focused on improving the software, when in reality we should be trying to improve the person who is using the software.
Its not about better products, it’s about enabling better people.
Its not about better companies, it’s about incentivizing better societies.