I agree with the substance of what you say, but I wouldn't actually call it a design trend at all, rather it's a marketing trend, and I can tell you exactly where it comes from.
The reason behind it is a philosophy that you're not selling a product but rather a "solution". If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone explain it with the example "a customer isn't buying a drill, they're buying holes". The example apparently goes back to Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt, and it was popularized in the mid 2000's [1].
It was a legitimate observation around focusing on customer needs rather than your product line, and so what other products or services might you also be able to profitably provide? And in the tech world it turned into helpfully focusing on product-led "use cases" in UX design -- focusing on user flows of how to get things done, rather than individual features that a user can't figure out how to find or combine.
But then it got taken, in my opinion, waaay too far as marketing people started making websites that focus entirely on the "solution" and say next to nothing about the product. The site says "we'll fill all your hole needs!" and the customer is scratching their heads because they can't tell if this is a company that makes hole punches for 3-ring binders, or excavating equipment for your backyard, or drills.
And it's maddening. I share your pain.
Because it's not how consumers think. They think, I want a drill, and I have strong opinions as to whether I want corded or cordless, and to make sure it's compatible with the drill bits I already own. Consumers are generally pretty smart, and have already made the leap from "hole" to "drill".
So I understand where this "we sell hole solutions!" website pattern comes from, but I swear to god I don't understand why people are still doing it. The whole "it's holes not drills" philosophy has turned into a kind of cargo cult inside of a lot of companies, and it's not pretty.
So that's the genesis of it, but it's much worse: lazy, unprofessional marketing parrots.
80% of people in Marketing have no idea how to Market.
They just know how to 'do marketing things'.
This took me years to figure out, but there are actually few people who rigorously follow good, established marketing concepts, mostly they just 'make copy' 'make web sites' 'do campaigns' and efforts are often judged aesthetically, or by vanity metrics.
Also, we should admit, we've never had so much selection and perhaps most importantly, we've never lived among such abstract concepts.
You've never been confused at the 'Drill Maker' site. Even if they did talk about 'holes' - that would not matter.
Software is intangible, especially for 'newer' things.
But yes, it's unbelievably problematic, and deeply annoying.
Agency people are usually 'creative' - that's not what makes good marketing.
Rules of brand are: clarity, consistency, authenticity. While branding is only one part of it 'clarity' can be applied everywhere.
I'm looking at data.ai aka app annie right now and I want to wrangle he marketing team it's ridiculous to try to fathom what all their dumb products do - they only use abstractions.
Literally 5 products that 'increase ROI and help you meet OKRs' or whatever, my god man What the F is it, and what does it do? is the question at hand here.
Admittedly, it's not always so easy but focus should be on that.
I too share your pain here - BUT - I have another observation:
I think, and I hate that this is true, but I truly think larger enterprises - and specifically the people who make buying decisions within non-technical departments at larger enterprises - really do prefer to buy “solutions” and not tools.
I’m a product guy through and through and it drives me bonkers when I visit websites that try to sell me holes instead of drills. But I’ve worked with B2B SaaS companies, and when you’re selling to non-technical folks, they do seem to want to buy holes. This is particularly so with sales and sales enablement tools. You’ll get people proudly saying things like (to continue to metaphor) “you know I’m not an engineer so I don’t understand these fancy drills to yours. But I sure do like the holes you guys offer and they’ll make me look really good to our CEO”…
The reason behind it is a philosophy that you're not selling a product but rather a "solution". If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone explain it with the example "a customer isn't buying a drill, they're buying holes". The example apparently goes back to Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt, and it was popularized in the mid 2000's [1].
It was a legitimate observation around focusing on customer needs rather than your product line, and so what other products or services might you also be able to profitably provide? And in the tech world it turned into helpfully focusing on product-led "use cases" in UX design -- focusing on user flows of how to get things done, rather than individual features that a user can't figure out how to find or combine.
But then it got taken, in my opinion, waaay too far as marketing people started making websites that focus entirely on the "solution" and say next to nothing about the product. The site says "we'll fill all your hole needs!" and the customer is scratching their heads because they can't tell if this is a company that makes hole punches for 3-ring binders, or excavating equipment for your backyard, or drills.
And it's maddening. I share your pain.
Because it's not how consumers think. They think, I want a drill, and I have strong opinions as to whether I want corded or cordless, and to make sure it's compatible with the drill bits I already own. Consumers are generally pretty smart, and have already made the leap from "hole" to "drill".
So I understand where this "we sell hole solutions!" website pattern comes from, but I swear to god I don't understand why people are still doing it. The whole "it's holes not drills" philosophy has turned into a kind of cargo cult inside of a lot of companies, and it's not pretty.
[1] https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/what-customers-want-from-your-pro...