The Zombocom Problem – by Gordon Brander

Welcome to zombocom… you can do anything with zombocom… anything… the only limit… is yourself…

This is the Zombocom Problem: sure, it can be anything, but first it has to be something specific.

Many attempts at no code, lower code, nodes-and-wires, end-user programming, wikis, malleable software, moldable development, great appsprotocols, and platforms fail due to the Zombocom Problem.

People don’t want “whatever”. They want something specific. To succeed, you must solve a specifically problem with a specifically user and search specifically product-market fit.

Sure, Amazon all the storesbut first it has to be a bookstore.

Three years ago I was in New York City working for a quantitative hedge fund, when I came across the startling statistic that web usage had grown by 2300% in one year.

So I decided that I would try and find a business plan that made sense in the context of that growth, and I chose books as the first best product to sell online after making a list like 20 different products you can sell.

And the books are as good as the first best, because the books are very unique in one respect: that is that there are more things in the book category then there are things in any other category so far.

Music is number two. There are about two hundred thousand active music CDs at any given time.

But in the book space there are more than three million different books worldwide that are active and printed at any time in all languages. Over one and a half million in English alone.

So if you have a lot of stuff you can literally build a store online like no other way.

Books are edge-of-the-wedge for Amazon. They are a great product, because they are shelf-stable, easy to ship, easy to handle, and can be competitive in catalog size.

Books also offer an easy gradient to adjacent categories such as music. First Amazon was the book store, then the book and music store, then the books and music and… Bezos landed, then expanded into adjacent market after adjacent market, until Amazon grew from one thing store to all store.

Zombocom’s problem explains why spreadsheets have succeeded, where many other end-user-programming platforms have failed.

The whole world runs on Excel. Name a data-intensive critical industry: deep-sea oil drilling? Managing the power grid? International finance? Everything is run in Excel on critical links.
(of 12 on HackerNews)

Spreadsheets are used by everyone for everything, but a person must first use them for something specific. Spreadsheets need to find the best customer first.

This is VisiCalcthe first spreadsheet program:

Who is VisiCalc? Who is the first best customer?

They know exactly who: business owners and accountants. More specifically, small business owners who cannot afford a full-time accountant. It’s the edge-of-the-wedge for spreadsheets.

“We build a platform, not a product”. If you hear this, run away. Platforms come from products, not the other way around.

People don’t buy platforms. They buy a product every time that somehow differentiates itself from every other product in their life. And then they move on to the next one. And the next one. You have to make standalone, great products, and if they end up talking to each other 10 or 20 years down the line, then great.
(Tony Fadellfounder of Nest, lead engineer responsible for the invention of the iPod)

A product can solve a specifically problem with a specifically user. Platforms should also start here. If not, DOA them.

I am interested in developing software that is organic, open-ended, and evolving… squishy computers. A squishy computer is pliable, re-shapable, open-ended, true to its materials as a universal machine.

So but how do we make the software into anything without falling into Zombocom’s trap? I believe Bezos’ interview shows us how.

1. You start from a system-level understanding (the internet has grown rapidly)

2. Then work backwards to a first best customer with a burning need (can’t find a book) related to your superpower (internet allows for unlimited shelf space).

3. This customer acts as the edge-of-the-wedge for extending to adjacent use cases (the next best customer is music)

Bezo’s approach is noble. It holds two seemingly incompatible views of stress and surpasses any lesser alternative:

• A single-purpose product knows its customer, but tends to paint itself into a corner without system-level insight. Instead of landing and expanding, it deepens into its vertical.

• A system platform has a lot of growth potential, but is likely to flop without the best customer first. Sometimes it is possible to overcome it with a big push distribution channel, but the truth is, if you build it, they don’t always come.

Starting at that system level of insight and working back to the first best customer requires two different skills, two different ways of looking.

• From the outside, it looks like you’re diving deep into a vertical and building a functional product. Systems thinkers don’t like that. They want to generalize the system.

• From the inside, it may feel like you are spending a lot of time on theory. Product thinkers don’t like that. They want to think about the customer.

But holding these two conflicting views in your head at once is a powerful force. Doing the due diligence of forward-thinking systems allows you to discover exponential opportunities. Working back to a first best customer sharpens your content.

It can be anything, but first it has to be something specific.