One Of The Three Core Shopify Principles Has Issues. Let's Talk About Them
Tobi outlined three principles at Shopify Unite. Two I think are unifying and straightforward.
One is problematic, because it is where the really hard work lies.
The two easy ones are:
Make Commerce Creative
Make Everything (Else) Possible
The second one he mentioned but my third one here:
Make the Important Easy. Whooh boy. This is simple and great. But these two words are fraught with difficulty. The reason this matters is that every product manager, marketing manager, partner manager, developer, will have a different definition of these two words: "Important" and "Easy".
Here are my questions about it:
Easy for who? SMB and Entrepreneurs only?
Who decides what is important? What if I am primarily a wholesaler? What if I'm a marketplace? What if I'm a subscription-first business? What if I have an ERP system? What if I want to enable in-store pickup? Seem important to me.
How easy is "easy enough"?
Where does it end? It could lead to unlimited scope creep. Fulfillment? Advertising? Helping merchants optimize cost of goods & purchasing?
Seems important. After all, these 3 costs are the top line items on any merchant's Profit & Loss statement.
What does "easy" mean for partners? Will they continue to pick winners?
