Fitzpatrick’s Hierarchy of Tech Needs

For those of you not yet familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, have a quick look. It’s an interesting theory in psychology.

The gist of it is that we have different levels of needs and motivations, and that we typically only focus on satisfying those higher order needs once our basic needs are met. So, we’re all climbing the pyramid.

I’ve come to believe that this theory of motivations can be applied in other areas, like technology. And strangely enough, I’d like to use a car example:

• When I was young and wanted my first car, simply having a car was enough. I just wanted my freedom. I didn’t care what kind of car it was, how old it was, if it was reliable or not, or guzzled gas, or if it was cool, fast or swank. I just wanted a car.
• After having a car for a while, this was no longer enough. I wanted a reliable car that wouldn’t break down, need repairs or guzzle gas. I became more demanding as a “car consumer” and my standards were raised.
• After having a reliable car for a while, suddenly this was no longer enough. I wanted something respectable, comfortable and with a little status attached. Now I was getting picky.
• Finally, I wasn’t satisfied just to have an ordinary good quality car – I wanted something exotic: a high-end sports car. I wanted style, aesthetics, performance and I liked everything that went with being a sports car owner.

Of course during this journey, my income increased as well, so that enabled me to jump categories, but my motivations occurred in roughly that way.

I believe we’re seeing the same kind of thing with technology (hardware and software). As consumers of technology, for business and pleasure, we’re all becoming more sophisticated. What satisfied us yesterday is no longer satisfying. Here are the rough demands I think we place on our technology:

It’s no longer enough just to “have” technology, or that it “works”, or that it’s compatible with our other things. We just expect those to be there. Our awareness and demands as tech consumers are now moving quickly into the polish and style categories – the “higher order” attributes.

Software designers that get this will do well in the future. Those that don’t will fall behind. Musings about why Apple is doing so well these days inspired this post.