Opinion: Buying new software to do what you already can do

I remember that back when Microsoft introduced the ribbon for the menu in Microsoft Excel, I was at a product group session where they explained why they did it. They told us that when they summarized all the requests from users for features to add to Excel, there was something amazing:

Almost every feature was already there

So, what they had was a discoverability issue, not a feature gap.

What prompted me to write this opinion today, is that I see exactly the same sort of issue in my data-related work. People are unaware of what their existing tooling and software can do, and wish features would be added, yet those features are already there.

But worse, I see users pay attention to a software advertisement, and think “I really need that”, and go and buy the new software.

What they didn’t do, is spend a short while to check if they had that same capability in their existing tools.

I watched a customer spend a large amount on some software that did nothing more than what the built-in tooling could already so.

Before you consider buying new software, please take the time to check the capabilities of your existing software. You might well be surprised (pleasantly).

2025-04-21