We need to talk about the F word (‘friction’ in enterprise, that is)

Today, everything is free. If you are park your car,, Sell ​​your house,, Drive the Or drying your hair, there is a business that promises to save you time and eliminate the hassle that you may meet. The lighting of friction is the final form of the American worship of convenience – the culmination of a continuous effort to satisfy the desire of consumers for faster, easier and more complete satisfaction.

In the digital age, friction is also a growth engine: the easier it becomes to use a product or service, the more companies can increase their user base and extract value. Design of friction products, global consent tools, digital portfolios and unified connections powered by giants like Facebook and Google allow companies to develop and sell without users filling out forms, not traveling the Buissier de confidentiality or even come from payment details.

It is easy to see why investors like friction. (Try to find a pitch bay area pitch that doesn’t Promise to eliminate friction.) But our fetishness of friction has a price.

A slippery slope

Make things easy was the founding promise of the digital age. In the mid -1990s, I helped create web products that made the stock market quotes available with a mouse button. (He beats the diffusion of ink fingers down on newspaper purses at the rear of the business pages.) Other dot-com pioneers have effortlessly listened to music, from the store , to read the news, to forge relationships and more.

Since then, mobile devices, unified connections, location services and more have given countless “automatic” solutions to our problems. Personalized flows offer content without us getting a finger. Intelligent devices – speakers, cars, sunglasses, refrigerators – weave digital convenience through all aspects of our lives. Now, AI eliminates more friction: no need to write emails, read messages or think particularly about anything.

However, the elimination of friction is not a guarantee of success. WeWork spectacularly To build a real estate empire without friction. Amazon has spent large sums on Retail sale of bricks and mortar without friction. ZUCK PRE-TRUMP Flipped on friction While Facebook was looking for a goose commitment while contravening online trolls.

In addition, the elimination of friction has serious societal consequences. Friction helps us take a break, think and make better choices. When Robinhood has been effortlessly exchanged, countless Americans wrapped to the rush. Easy online braids has led rates of bankruptcy up 30%. No more friction could have prevented crowdsstrike from Bricking the computers of the world; help reintegrate extremists on social networks; Or slowed down the spread opioids.

Even for individuals, the non-victory is not always a winning victory. The elimination of friction can mean the surrender agency. Algorithms provide chosen premmetified content For We, not by We; Online retailers select what we “discover” to control what we buy. Non-friction infantilizes us; We are left floating, like the Humans linked to the organ of Wall-epassively ingesting everything we serve.

Strategic drawback

Although it can be easier to become rich Pablum Pablum in the receptive mouths of consumers acquiescents, in the long term, companies that treat customers like intelligent, authorized and conscious people will do better than those who simply count on their docility.

Steve Jobs understood the seductions of the effort – hence its promise that Apple products would be “just work. “But at the same time, he understood the power of friction. When he was asked for the right way to collect customer data, he famous said: “Ask them!” Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get bored of your request. Jobs recommended a Goldilocks approach: just the right amount of friction to create products that delight and do the good of your users.

By establishing the right balance, companies can use friction to their advantage. The friction, after all, is another word for feedback – so the products that become completely without friction cease to meet the needs of users. The continuation of the absence of friction can throw you to the sky, but over time, you will find it difficult to correct the courses. Finally, gravity will bring you back to earth.

It is not hypothetical: research shows that friction makes many systems – including companies – smarter and more resilient. A little strategic drawback can improve market performance, with investors Make smarter decisions When they are forced to slow down and think of trades. The Iex Feeds Stock Exchange is negotiated through a “magic shoe box” containing miles of rolled fiber cables, Creation of a period of 350 miles To blunder the impact of high -frequency trading, which makes markets more fair for everyone.

Cybersecurity teams sometimes require human approval Before software automatically installs their intranet – slowing down people, while making bad players more difficult to divert the network. The rules of confidentiality of data such as the GDPR, on the other hand, add friction in the form of consent and confidentiality notice – and although too much is counterproductive, a balanced approach makes consumers better informed and with more control over their data.

Start talking about friction

What does that mean for today’s founders? Obviously, we will not bypass technologies without friction of any time – we should not either. What we should do, however, is to ask how we can The size of the friction In our products – or even transform friction into a commercial opportunity.

For technologists, this means asking: what problems do you solve by eliminating friction-and what problems could you create, now or in the future, in doing so? Each design choice brings compromises, but the balance between risks and rewards to design for the right level of friction allows rapid growth and long -term sustainability.

Such an approach could also facilitate farewell conversations on the need to regulate AI and other emerging technologies. Regulations always add Friction – but once we accept that some friction can be precious, we can work in collaboration with political decision -makers to find the right level of friction to support innovation while protecting and respecting consumers.

The main thing? The inclination as Saint Grail for digital products and services turned against him. It is time for a more nuanced approach – and it starts by accepting that for the founders of technology and investors, “friction” should not be a word with four letters. It is only by bringing friction into conversation that we can develop in a responsible manner of new technologies with growth potential, but also real power.

Jennie Baird is president of The ethical technological project.