Aaron Levie

Higher Engineer Output Expands Roadmaps, Fuels Competition

This is the question every software company is asking themselves right now. What happens to our roadmap if an engineer can produce 2X or 5X more output. The general direction will be roadmap expansion. Companies that just use this leverage to cut costs will be outcompeted by those that decide to do more. As a result, this will mean we will see more competitive battles between companies, but also the expansion of many more categories since software can touch more surface area. The limiter then becomes how rapidly your customers can actually adopt new software, how good you make that software (vs. it becomes slop because it’s so much easier), and whether you can get paid for more software or if customers’ expectations just go up over time for what they get from each vendor. As an aside, building up a brand, ecosystem, and distribution moat ends up being critical. If software development cost per unit go down, then the new game is how you can get customers to adopt and remain sticky. GTM becomes a critical factor in all this.