It was april 8th 2019, a sunny day in Seattle. I was attending Drupalcon, the annual global event of the world’s top Drupal contributors, influencers, and organizations. Drupal is a leading open source content management system. The world’s top Drupal contributors, influencers, and organizations met in Seattle to discuss, code and the future of the platform and business. I received a call from the organization and was asked to help out as a moderator at the business executives meeting. Top leaders of major organizations, ranging from the SciFi channel to the Smithsonian museum and major universities were attending. One of the attendees, a CTO of a major cooperation gave a presentation about targeting specific audiences and how they managed this through their platform. At the end of the presentation, when the applause subsided, he looked at the audience and asked this question:
There is nothing more to optimize, now what?
It appeared that he had invested a serious amount of time and energy in UX and noted there was nothing more to optimize. Now what? He looked at the audience with a gaze in search for an answer. Nobody moved, the silence was awkward. I decided to raise my hand and answered.
When there is nothing more to optimize, it’s time for marketing and creativity.
When there is nothing more to optimize is similar like swimming in a red ocean (blue / red ocean theory). There is not enough fish which means you have to look for new markets and new audiences. This is where marketing and creativity comes into play.
I already wrote earlier that about the average UX improvements over time are shrinking. I foresee the end the of the User Experience Economy in a couple of years time and predict a new era for marketing and creative agencies!
