As software becomes more important in business, its quality often suffers because most people don’t truly get what software is all about. Companies and individuals often lack understanding of the complexities and unique traits of software, which make it unlike any material we've used to create products in human history. Software even has a kind of intelligence and offers features that set it apart from physical products.

Software is naturally shapeless, cheap, and easy to change, even after it’s released—if you plan ahead a bit. It has zero marginal cost and can scale infinitely, unlike any physical product. Think about it: cars, cups, and karaoke machines need to be perfect from the start because once you produce thousands of them, there's no easy way to fix mistakes.

Traditional product development would love to have the perks of software. They’re often stuck in a rigid process because they can’t prototype quickly or make major changes after production starts, let alone after the product is sold. That’s why 3D printing is such a big deal—it offers a taste of the flexibility software development has. Plus, the initial costs for physical products are usually sky-high, which changes everything about how they’re developed.

If you’re not taking advantage of software’s unique features, you’re either missing the point or stuck in a bureaucratic mess. Many companies just chop up top-down orders into smaller tasks to deliver in increments. That’s a bit better than before, but still far from what’s possible.

To truly benefit from software, businesses need to embrace its unique traits and adapt their development processes. This means moving beyond traditional methods and fully exploiting the flexibility, scalability, and iterative nature of software to create innovative and high-quality products.