{"id":8911,"date":"2016-02-29T09:07:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T09:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/?p=8911"},"modified":"2020-07-30T13:02:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T12:02:15","slug":"stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop focusing on the next big thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a great Twitter account<\/a> that parodies dumb\u00a0tech blog headlines. \u201cBreaking: The Novelty Of Touchscreen Telephones Is Wearing Off.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a periodic reminder why we\u2019re often better off ignoring industry news.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s a natural tendency for product people to fetishize the future. We latch enthusiastically onto the latest trends, without really stepping back and asking why. AI, VR, AR, machine learning, conversational commerce\u00a0\u2013 the design possibilities of these emerging trends are awesome, but\u00a0our ambitions should extend beyond riding a wave of hype. It\u2019s as if we all want to leap forward in time and grasp some secret advantage from the future; something that might help us get to the finish line ahead of the competition.<\/p>\n

This short-term jostling is the root of the \u201cNext Big Thing-ism\u201d that dominates most industry conversation. FOMO, not focus, is the motivating force behind large parts of what you see at CES or on Product Hunt. Many of these products are searching for a quick exit of some sort; in most cases, public opinion duly obliges by showing them the door.<\/p>\n

There is a humbler, more considered approach, though. It involves thinking about building products as an opportunity to gradually steer us towards a future that\u2019s still unwritten. To have some small influence over the direction of technology.\u00a0Or maybe even kick some stones in its path.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no inevitable endpoint in design, no predefined linear story of what must come next. There\u2019s only what little you can input \u2013 your own sense of what could come next. You\u2019re designing the rudder, not the boat \u2013 and certainly not the ocean.<\/p>\n

This is the main difference between the frothy, business-obsessed pursuit of the next big thing, and the honest\u00a0problem solving that creates real progress\u00a0in the first place. All these things we make, they\u2019re just hypotheses, not predictors.<\/p>\n

As Brian Eno<\/a> says, we\u2019re not designing the future; we\u2019re making things that belong to the future we would like to live in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a great Twitter account that parodies dumb\u00a0tech blog headlines. \u201cBreaking: The Novelty Of Touchscreen Telephones Is Wearing Off.\u201d It\u2019s a periodic reminder why we\u2019re often better off ignoring industry news. Still, there\u2019s a natural tendency…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":8914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"category":[5],"tags":[175,189,153],"coauthors":[359],"class_list":["post-8911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product-and-design","tag-business","tag-innovation","tag-product-design"],"yoast_head":"\nStop focusing on the next big thing - The Intercom Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The tech industry is obsessed with the next big thing. \u00a0But we should think about product building as steering us towards a future that\u2019s still unwritten.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stop focusing on the next big thing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The tech industry is obsessed with the next big thing. \u00a0But we should think about product building as steering us towards a future that\u2019s still unwritten.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Intercom Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-29T09:07:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-30T12:02:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/zuckerberg_1248.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1248\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"591\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emmet Connolly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thoughtwax\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@intercom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Emmet Connolly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Emmet Connolly\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/39cdaf902e6a97d522d9ec3f6890894d\"},\"headline\":\"Stop focusing on the next big thing\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-29T09:07:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-30T12:02:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/zuckerberg_1248.png\",\"keywords\":[\"business\",\"innovation\",\"product design\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Product & Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/stop-focusing-on-the-next-big-thing\\\/\",\"name\":\"Stop focusing on the next big thing - 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