There’s a lot to like in the Qualtrics news. And with all those $ and % signs flying around it’s easy to lose one of the greatest strategic moves they made that cost them nothing, but sits at the heart of the narrative for the SAP acquisition.
Of the deal, SAP’s CEO says “Bringing their 'X data,' experience, to the 'O data,' the operational data we have, bringing that together can claim the most important category of all. I think this is the biggest idea in my lifetime.” cnbc.com/2018/11/11/sap…
If “O data” is operational data, what is “X data”?
Until 2017 Qualtrics was a survey company. They built software that helped professors, initially, then companies, to survey customers, students, anyone on any topic.
Then, they shifted their narrative.
You stopped hearing them talk about surveys and started hearing them talk about experiences. And you stopped hearing them talk about competitors, because they didn’t have any competitors in the “Experience Management” space.
Because there was no Experience Management space! It’s was just them. They created an entirely new category that they got to define and dominate vs. going feature for feature with countless other survey software vendors.
And while the “leader” in survey software trades at just over a billion dollar market cap, the leader in Experience Management just got bought for $8B and is being billed as the greatest opportunity of a lifetime.
Category creation and definition is far too underutilized as a startup super power. The results for Qualtrics are undeniable and equally available to others willing to put in the work to stand apart.
