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What don’t you like about SaaS and why?

  • Related to Technical
  • For Technical PM
  Amazon
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Answers (1)
  1. Clarifying Questions
    1. Is there a specific area of SaaS you want me to focus on? For example like CRMs?
      1. Focus on the industry as a whole
  2. Establish Framework
    1. For some background, I actually have experience working in the SaaS industry, specifically in an Operations focused role. To structure my answer, I wanted to start off by giving a background of SaaS industry, covering what it is at a high level, and identifying key players. Then finishing off with the reasons why I don’t care too much for the industry.
  3. Industry background
    1. SaaS stands for Software as a service (SaaS) and is a type of software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet. SaaS sits in the family of cloud computing alongside infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). Fundamentally, the value for customers (I.e. businesses) is that SaaS removes the need for organizations to install and run applications on their own computers or in their own data centers, which typically requires a massive investment.
  4. Key Players
    1. In the industry, you have key players like Salesforce dominating the CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Cisco with Network Security Management, and Service Now with IT Services Management.
  5. Reasons Why I Don’t Care for It
    1. The space is highly convoluted for business owners: Very few players create easy-to-use software for business owners to understand: For example, with Salesforce, the platform requires training to even be able to operate the software efficiently, given the immense amount of complicated features.
    2. The Space is becoming very saturated: Too many new start-ups emerging: making the space even more confusing for businesses to understand. It feels that the supply of SaaS companies is unanchored with new niches being created every day.
    3. As SaaS companies grow, keeping users’ needs at the top of their mind can be difficult: This is especially true for larger companies engaging in acquisitions resulting in a dilution of the product with an influx of new features.
  6. Recap
    1. I don’t care too much for SaaS space, given the convoluted industry, saturated market, and difficulty being customer-centric at scale.