Meet the Bar and Be Different
Incumbents overshoot average utility — win by meeting the bar while being materially different
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
Clowes frames next-gen product disruption as classic disruptive innovation: incumbents overshoot the average user's needed utility, so a challenger wins not by being a cheaper copy but by meeting the utility bar while offering a materially different angle. His concrete pattern for that difference today is bringing data as a first-class citizen directly into the workflow rather than bolting reporting on afterward.
Origin
Clowes explicitly invokes disruptive innovation theory (Clayton Christensen's framing of overshooting average utility), applied to modern data-native apps like the ATS Ashby.
Core principles
- 01Most incumbents have overshot the average utility users actually need
- 02You can win by meeting the average utility bar and being different
- 03A cheaper 'not as good' clone has no angle and won't cut through
- 04Materially-better differentiation, not price, is the wedge
- 05Embedding data as a first-class citizen inside the workflow is a proven modern angle
How to run it
- 1
Find the utility overshoot
Identify where incumbents have piled on utility beyond what the average user needs. That overshoot is the opening for a simpler product that still clears the bar.
Pro tip Meeting 'average utility' is enough — you don't need to out-feature the incumbent.
Watch out Being merely cheaper-but-worse gives buyers no reason to switch.
- 2
Choose a material point of difference
Pick an angle on which you are genuinely, materially better — not a marginal tweak. Clowes' preferred modern angle: bring data as a first-class citizen into the core workflow.
Pro tip Tie actions directly to their outcomes inside the app the user already works in.
- 3
Embed data into the whole lifecycle
Rather than adding reporting after the fact, weave outcome data through the entire workflow so decisions are informed at the point of action.
Pro tip Ashby (ATS) embeds time-to-fill, hiring-outcome, and attrition data back to individual interviewers and interview stages inside the workflow.
Watch out AI lowers build cost for everyone, so your difference must be defensible beyond features that competitors can also generate fast.
In the wild
Clowes praises the applicant-tracking product Ashby: newer ATS products embed time-to-fill data, outcome data on who has the best hiring outcomes and worst attrition, traced back to interviewers and their place in the interview cycle. 'The actions and its outcomes are directly tieable to each other in the application you're doing the work in.'
→ A compelling, differentiated user experience that stands out even against prior-generation modern SaaS ATSs.
Common mistakes
Competing as the cheaper clone
'I'm the not as good Salesforce but I'm cheaper' has no angle; without material difference the incremental value trends to zero and buyers default to the incumbent.
Bolting data on instead of embedding it
Adding reporting after the fact misses the wedge — the differentiation comes from tying actions to outcomes inside the workflow, across the whole lifecycle.
Is it for you?
Best for
Challenger founders attacking an entrenched category who need a defensible wedge beyond price
Not ideal for
Markets where incumbents have not overshot and users still want more raw utility, so 'meet the bar' isn't enough
From the transcript
“most most companies have overshot the utility like the average utility so you can win by meeting the average utility and being different”
“meet the bar and be different”
“a lot of modern nextg applications are bringing data as a first class citizen into the workflow”
“the actions and its outcomes are directly tieable to each other in the application you're doing to work in”
From the episode
Why great AI products are all about the data
Shaun Clowes (CPO Confluent, ex-Salesforce, Atlassian)