Product leadership that scores capture will invent a dongle

Product leadership that only scores capture will invent a dongle.

Lightning kept accessories inside Apple’s wall. iMessage stayed closed while RCS waited. Macs shipped two ports and called the rest an accessory. Storage you cannot swap, so the next laptop is the upgrade.

I have supported the software version of that cable.

Three apps, three starts

Consider a healthcare journey split between medication, appointments, and finding care. If each part belongs to a different product, a person can end up starting over at every handoff. The organizational boundaries become their problem.

A useful product decision is to test the whole journey: can someone finish without repeating their identity, context, or request? A shared experience can help, but a platform change is a means to that end. The person should not have to understand the company’s team structure to get care.

Capture is a local optimum

A team scored on its own app will keep that app alive. A team scored on ports shipped will ship two ports. A team scored on accessories attached will invent the dongle.

The metric is not wrong. It is pointed at the wall, not the job.

I have watched this in healthcare, in freight, in every place a platform is a collection of surfaces. The honest score is whether the user finished. Refill. Find a provider. Get a load. If that number requires three apps and a dongle of context, you are measuring capture.

What I score now

Before I keep a surface, I want to say out loud: what job does the user finish here, and can they finish it without starting over somewhere else.

If the answer is no, the surface is a cable. Kill it or fold it. Do not dress it up as a portfolio.

Apple’s wall is visible. Software walls are easier to miss because they look like roadmaps.