Why Wartime Tobi Should Not Forget About Quality
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke: "The entire eCommerce universe just catapulted forward 10 years, and we are all scrambling to catch up". Let this be a warning to other platforms: Tobi has moved into wartime mode.
But at what cost?
One of the more interesting sections of yesterday's earnings calls was a Q&A that Tobi himself took. As a technologist myself, I appreciate listening to Tobi as he described one point during his extended comments:
Shopify is "lowering quality standards" in order to increase innovation. The context of these comments is he feels all eCommerce software is now 10 years behind. So it's urgent to catch up.
Is that so? And if it is so, is quality truly what you want to sacrifice in your message to thousands of Shopify employees?
Look, I understand this and it gets to the "move fast and break things" rules that Zuck popularized, but if you're Staples Canada recently moved onto Shopify Plus, and just tuned into the first earnings call of your new platform, is this really what you want to hear?
Were releases so slow before? Which features are truly "urgent" other than to satisfy the new grocery, food and tobacco merchants, and close some gaps in their international offerings?
