Earlier this week I collected some main (global) trends that fit Mindwave and my product vision. And the remarkable thing was, the trends are one by one strongly connected with Mindwave’s core values.
That can’t be a coincidence! Is it?
About a year ago I decided to define my main core values. Being a bootstrapper means that my personal core values are more or less the same as the product ones. I used the core values actively as design principles to make Conceptual and User Experience Design decisions. The main core values are:
- Authenticity
- Autonomy
- Balance
- Openness
- Reliable
To be honest, openness was on the ‘spare list’ because I wanted 4 main ones. But since this Insight (aka this story) it makes more sense to make openness one of the main values.
So, let’s take a look at those trends I wrote down:
Balance
- The importance of Mental Health is (finally) getting more attention.
- Mindfulness is buzzing around for some time in Silicon Valley, creating a stream of new meditation and journaling apps.
- The daily struggle of mobile phone addiction and social media’s FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
Openness
- Bootstrappers build publicly and even stream their coding sessions.
- Startups are transparent about their stats & profits (open startups), and share what they’ve learned and how they organized stuff (open source).
Authenticity
- We chase quantity over quality. Why?! Luckily more and more people say no to this unhealthy behavior. No more Instagramification of life.
- Fake news. Fake companies. Fake people.
- Every story counts. Where stories we tell ourselves are aligned with the stories we tell others.
Autonomy
- Being self-employed is the future. For everyone.
- If 8 out of 10 startups or products fail, why do we follow up on other people’s startup advice or books? Don’t take advice, let it just be an inspiration to find your own way.
Reliable
- Privacy and data security. One word: Facebook. Need I say more!
- If a product is free, then you are the product. It is getting (more) common to pay for the use of a product or service. Hooray for SaaS!
Now it may look like I searched for trends that fit the core values. But as said before, it was the other way around. I collected trends, grouped them and then added the core values as the group name.
So for me, it’s not a coincidence these trends are aligned with my core values. It means my core values are alive, stronger than ever. And I make decisions with them in the back of my mind, unconsciously. That’s a good thing!
But it also makes me wonder. What are the trends that aren’t aligned?
And, do I even care?
