On Technology: How Can You Tell If Your Technology is Succeeding?

When you are building (a company, a product, a relationship) you hit sign posts along they way. They tell you if you are on the right track – sometimes they tell you you are lost.

One of the sign posts we’ve encountered at FreshBooks – one common to other successful technologies – is our service changes people’s behaviour and improves their day to day life. We know this because of our client interviews. Almost everyone we interview tells us the same thing. “Before FreshBooks I used to invoice my clients at the end of the month. Now invoicing with FreshBooks is so easy. I invoice my clients as I do my work, and as a result I get paid about 2 weeks faster.” Our stats indicate they get paid 14.6 days faster, but that’s another story.

Changing behaviour is a sign post that FreshBooks adds a lot of value to the lives of our users. You can see behaviour changes with other technologies. Take the iPod for example. People use iPods to listen to podcasts in their cars. Who would have seen that change in behaviour? It’s here now though and it’s remarkable.

Can you think of other technologies that have changed your behaviour? If so, what are they and and how did they change you?