The other day I was in a meeting with a friend who wants to launch "a revolutionary productivity app" that he vibe coded. I asked him what made it different. He showed me 47 features. I asked again what made it different. He went silent.

That silence sums up the problem of creating products in 2025: we're competing in the wrong dimensions.

The end of the problem-solving era

For decades, the entrepreneur's manual was simple: find a problem, build a solution, sell it. Ford needed to make cars more affordable. Edison needed to light up homes. Jobs needed to humanize computers.

But we've reached a turning point. As modern entrepreneurship research documents, we're in an era where "virtually all basic needs seem to be met." The result: 500 to-do list apps, 300 delivery services, 1000 variations of the same SaaS.

The paradox is that, while everything seems invented, companies continue to emerge that grow exponentially. What's the difference?

In 2008, Adaptive Path published a book that should be mandatory reading. "Subject to Change". Its central thesis: "For people, the experience is the product we deliver, and the only thing that truly matters to them". Or in other words, people will never forget how you made them feel.

But what many don't understand is the second part of their argument: an experience is not a collection of memorable moments. It's not sticking bills on the wall or fireworks to impress. It's a complete and integrated system that works especially well when things start to go wrong. An experience system is key because it allows our “product” to be redundant.

The authors (Peter Merholz, Todd Wilkens, Brandon Schauer, and David Verba) explained it clearly: "The secret is to focus on experiences, diving into the complexities of people's lives, and then creating elegant systems to support them".

No wow moments. Elegant systems.

Consumer neuroscience revealed something that changed everything, which is that human decisions are fundamentally emotional. fMRI studies show that brands with loyal users activate the same brain areas that respond to basic pleasurable stimuli.

This means your product doesn't compete with other products. It competes for specific neurotransmitters:

• Dopamine (anticipation and reward)

• Oxytocin (connection and belonging)

• Serotonin (status and achievement)

• Endorphins (satisfaction post-effort)

As Donald Norman states in "Emotional Design", we operate on three levels: visceral (first impression), behavioral (use), and reflective (meaning). Emotions are not an add-on to design; they are its foundation.

Starbucks, examples of nothing

And now, the elephant in the room. Starbucks became everything it swore not to be:

• Now has chairs designed "to invite people back to their homes"

• Outlets disappeared democratically.

• Over 700 charges for unfair labor practices

The numbers don't lie: global sales dropped 7% in Q4 2024, customer traffic -10%, and a satisfaction index that pales.

Meanwhile, Blue Bottle serves only coffee roasted in the last 48 hours. Intelligentsia pays 25% above Fair Trade price. Stumptown offers full transparency in its supply chain.

The difference? Some optimize for operational efficiency. Others design for emotional experience.

Methodologies that work

Discovery as a sport

Teresa Torres proposed what the best teams were doing intuitively: Discovery as a weekly habit, not a one-time activity. The