The world’s getting increasingly complex. There is much more data, many more choices and a myriad of decisions. 

Many organisations have been using technology and data to create augmented outcomes by continuously making the existing proposition better. Often to the extent that the customer may no longer be willing to pay the premium for the “improvement”.

Customers are craving simplicity; they are “over satisfied” and organisations are finding themselves spending to stand still. This brings up the question whether innovation today is really focused on the need or the problem the customer is trying to solve?

The world’s most disruptive brands understand the power of design thinking and simplicity. We love the Google home page as a search engine. It’s simple, no advertisements, no weather forecasts and no news updates. It fulfills our need to find content in a simple manner. 

 The Dollar Shave Club was successful in a mature market because they focused on the basic needs of the customer around convenient shaving at a time when Gillette was probably adding a 5th blade to their existing shaver thereby creating an augmented result.

Creating customer experiences is often about reducing complexity, understanding what problems customers are experiencing and the true implications before starting to come up with a solution to make the existing better.

With so many new Proptech and other solutions emerging in the Real Estate industry, there is a danger of creating augmented outcomes and losing sight of the actual problem or need that Real Estate is solving for stakeholders. 

Real Estate is about experiences. Keep it simple and use technology as the enabler to solve those problems that create the most value.