Why Do Product Definitions Matter For Expectations?

Rigid product definitions don't just stifle innovation and progress, they also create uncertainty and lowered expectations for a positive future. How, then, to break free of rigidities? Ah, but there is the rub. Sometimes rigidities exist for no better reason than we don't really know how to talk, or think, about them. We become used to seeing the world around us in certain ways, and so it is not immediately obvious why some of those aspects may need to be altered. Consequently, we end up fighting over the broader effects of those settings in which it has become difficult to coordinate economic life. The reason product definition matters is that products are not just something we randomly purchase.  Such definitions interlock with the ways we present environments for buying, selling, and living our lives.

Even though the U.S. was fortunate enough to avoid a depression this time around, the slow recovery indicates that all is certainly not back to normal. The Great Depression took place just long enough ago that some forms of direct comparisons are not easy to come by. While we are learning more about the monetary policies that were debated then, and the potential solutions of nominal targeting that didn't gain adequate consideration, it is not so easy to place ourselves into what was a very different environment for product definition in a larger sense. More importantly, the settings in which people lived their lives changed in dramatic ways, from the beginning of the Great Depression to the time that it was finally in the rear view mirror. While some of those changes occurred because of infrastructure development, others were more spontaneous. However the best part was that entirely new kinds of product were offered to the masses for the first time, which not only gave the consumer greater monetary equivalence (i.e. relevance), but boosted productivity and wealth creation at the same time. There was a wonderful, spatial feel to this product environment that took more than half a century to fully mature.

To be sure, the changing product environments of our present still have a spatial feel, but not in the same sense of physical definition. Instead the spatial explorations of the present tend to happen in more digital forms, and the social element of countless retail stores has not really been replaced by social media.  Many of the furniture items that once filled family rooms everywhere, are no longer even necessary. Yet the old rules and regulations for living spaces remain in place, while many people are already learning how to move through environments in ways quite different from the specific confines of  private dwellings in the 20th century.

Expectations for the future also depend on the decade in which one was born. For instance, the expanding nature of retail was quite evident for anyone born in the fifties such as myself. Many a Baby Boomer let go of retail environments only reluctantly in the first decade of the new century, when it became evident that aspect of life was quickly changing. For those born in the sixties and beyond, they didn't really see the brief flirtation retail had with rural areas, before it moved past small town life into larger, more rewarding settings.

One of the most important aspects of expectations is the way service products are currently presented, in that the wealth they actually hold is not well understood. While this does not present problems for economies in times of rapid growth, production discrepancies become more apparent once growth slows and services of all kinds may be brought into question. The first thing that can be done for such issues is to take a hard look at the physical environments they actually are required to operate in. Once physical environments are created in more sustainable ways , the harder work of preserving important services for the long run can finally be considered. Expectations need not be "it can't be done".