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What is opinionated software?

While all software is shaped by the people who create it, reflecting their decisions, experiences, and viewpoints, opinionated products take a firmer stance about how they should be used. Opinionated software “believes a certain way of approaching a business process is inherently better and provides software crafted around that approach.” In contrast, “enterprise” software can be continuously configured and customized to tailor fit your unique use case and context.

An Example: Apple vs. Microsoft

Apple’s iPhone is opinionated. There is a clear, intended way to use it, allowing a wide range of people, regardless of their prior experience and level of technical expertise, to take it out of the box and fire it up. This carefully designed and opinionated flow allows for easy adoption and brand recognition, but it can limit users’ creativity and control.

Microsoft Excel on the other hand is not opinionated. Users are free to explore, customize, and create however they see fit. This allows for incredible flexibility and power, however it can leave users feeling overwhelmed or unaware of available functionality.

An Analogy: Buying vs. Building a House

Opinionated software is akin to buying a house. You can develop a list of criteria and view a variety of houses that meet some or most of those criteria, but ultimately you must choose one that’s the best fit. You can redecorate and renovate to some degree, but generally what you see is what you get. This approach can be much faster and easier than building a home from scratch, but you don’t have as much control or creative license.

Non-opinionated software is akin to building a house. You’re able to design it from the ground up, custom tailoring it to your specific needs, wants, and preferences. While you can look at catalogues and resources for ideas, you’re generally on your own (unless you hire expensive consultants) to craft and bring your vision to life. This approach offers more autonomy and freedom than buying an existing house, but it can be more drawn out, expensive, and labor intensive.

The argument for opinionated products

They have a clear vision and focus

The co-founders of Basecamp argue there is value in determining your vision and seeking out customers who share that vision and will partner with you:

“Some people argue software should be agnostic. They say it’s arrogant for developers to limit features or ignore feature requests. They say software should always be as flexible as possible. We think that’s bullshit. The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they’re not just looking for features, they’re looking for an approach…Our apps…don’t try to be all things to all people.”

In the end, building a product for everyone often means building a product for no one.

After deeply researching, understanding, and considering your options, forming an opinion allows you to focus. You understand what you’re trying to achieve and can prioritize the initiatives that align with that vision. It also acts as a North Star for team members — they can use the clear, compelling, and focused vision to guide their decision making and prioritization in their day-to-day work.

They reduce cognitive load and increase efficiency

Opinionated software takes a side and defines a “golden path” it wants users to follow. If users’ needs align with the software’s assumptions and use cases, the product can greatly reduce friction and increase speed and efficiency. Additionally, well-designed opinionated software can rapidly get users up to speed, allowing them to meaningfully contribute more quickly.

Non-opinionated products, on the other hand, emphasize flexibility and control, often providing various settings and configurations. Users are expected to know what they want and how to achieve it in order to find value. The risk in this approach is that users may fail to uncover or utilize the available functionality to its full potential, or they may build sub-optimal configurations. Instead of taking this risk, opinionated proponents argue: “Leave out the fluff. Kill all those settings. Build opinionated products.”

They provide added value and differentiation

Finally, picking an approach and offering an opinion can be a competitive differentiator in a crowded market. Just as business consultants solve problems for their clients, opinionated products are trying to solve problems for markets.

Stuart Eccles, the CTO and Co-Founder of a digital product innovation accelerator, believes non-opinionated products are “in danger of being disrupted by new entrants that are not only leaner products but also more opinionated products. I think it is possible to see products now that are using opinion as a competitive advantage. Not just in their content marketing but baked into the software code itself.”

A recent story highlighting a new Robinhood user’s $800,000 potential tax bill on his $45,000 in net trading profits could be a cautionary tale, illustrating why some guidance and guardrails are needed, particularly in complex and highly regulated industries.

The argument against opinionated products

They offer more control and personalization

Non-opinionated products give developers more control, trusting them to make the right decisions. These products provide building blocks and tools, allowing users to combine and use them however they see fit based on their specific goals and use cases.

Complex and unique use cases may require bespoke and tailored solutions in order to get things right. Buying opinionated software out of the box may be cheaper initially, but it may have unanticipated fees and headaches down the line as you need to customize and implement it to fit your distinct situation. Often in these cases, using non-opinionated products can pay off in the long run in terms of quality and cost.

The Refinery, a digital agency, concludes: “In our eyes, opinionated software is a great place to start building a new line of business, where it’s possible the software company knows your business better than you do. But as you scale, you’ll want to consider stepping up to something built specifically for your operation. You’ve got opinions all your own.”

They create space for more freedom, flexibility, and innovation

Non-opinionated products give users more flexibility to create their own solutions. They aren’t prescriptive, delineating one method of solving a problem, but provide flexible tools for users to solve their problems in many ways.

Opinionated products often make it difficult, costly, or even painful to deviate from their built-in assumptions and conventions. If your needs don’t closely align with their intended use case, this can restrict the tools and solutions available, limiting what users can achieve.

Additionally, non-opinionated software can leave more room for creativity and innovation. Just as when you build a house from scratch, the world is your oyster. You have room to rethink, work creatively, and solve problems in new and different ways.

They are more inclusive (or maybe just less biased)

Finally, non-opinionated software is less biased in that it doesn’t take a specific stance, meaning it doesn’t prioritize or exclude particular user groups. “Anytime you form an opinion there is going to be a minority population that you have cut out.”

For example, below is a desk many of us likely came across in school. The design of this desk assumes that most people are right handed, however that conscious assumption and design make things very difficult for left handed folks.

https://wisdomproject.substack.com/p/the-one-about-our-opinionated-products

Finding a balance

Depending on your situation, opinionated or non-opinionated software may be a better fit.

When to seek opinionated

• Your need is a well understood and commonly solved problem
• You’re willing to trade some efficiency and control for speed and cost
• Your employees are very busy or are more generalists in the topic at hand

When to seek non-opinionated

• Your problem or process is novel, unique, or ill-defined
• You’re willing to trade some speed for a deeply customized and tailored product
• Your employees are highly-trained experts in the topic at hand

The founder of Dev Spotlight, a company creating technical content for Devs and DevOps, summarizes:

“If you have a clear target and are following a well-trodden development or architectural path, opinionated frameworks can help save you time and money by making applications easier to develop and deploy. An opinionated framework gives you guard rails, tons of starter code, and optimizes your path. But if you know that things will go off path very quickly, then you should consider using a non-opinionated framework out of the gate.”

But wait, can we have both?

Perhaps we can combine the best of both sides. What if products default to best practices, include built-in guidance and suggestions, and offer optional templates? This could provide structure and support to those who need it, while allowing more experienced users or specialized use cases to override these suggestions to meet their specific needs.

When I first used Pendo, I found it pretty overwhelming. There was so much functionality and data to explore, but I didn’t know where to start. (To be fair I also didn’t have a clear ask or specific use case from my team.) However later when I started using AirTable, I was pleasantly surprised by the flexibility and power of the tool in addition to the ecosystem of resources that surrounded it. Reps reached out to offer personalized support, webinars, and other valuable training resources, and they periodically emailed me links to specific use cases and case studies of how others have found value in the tool. These resources gave me the support and guidance I needed, while sparking my imagination with concrete examples from clients like me.

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The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article published on our platform. This story contributed to Bay Area Black Designers: a professional development community for Black people who are digital designers and researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area. By joining together in community, members share inspiration, connection, peer mentorship, professional development, resources, feedback, support, and resilience. Silence against systemic racism is not an option. Build the design community you believe in.