Organizations are investing less in design, not because they have found ways to offer good experiences with less design investment, but because organizations believe they can offer worse experiences and succeed anyway.

These organizations are not aiming for the best experiences. They are aiming for barely good enough ones.

The ideal of the barely good enough experience skirts a fine line between passive and active dissatisfaction.

Active dissatisfaction is where people do something about the bad experiences they are having. They leave or refuse to cooperate, and these actions have a negative business impact.

Passive dissatisfaction is a state where people are unhappy but not so unhappy that they do anything. They grudgingly stick around and do what the organization wants. Consequently, the displeasure has no negative business impact.

Many organizations see passive dissatisfaction as the sweet spot. If customers or employees and partners are too happy, that indicates that the organization left money on the table. Money that can be spent on operational efficiency, or strategic investments of various kinds (AI, new markets, consumer-choice-restricting acquisitions of competitors, etc.), or on growth, or on executive salaries. These, it is believed, will serve the organization better than wastefully excessive happiness of customers or employees.

Think about it: Are your consumer experiences improving?

Are you having better and better experiences receiving services from organizations? Do you feel less frustrated with the organizations in your life? Do you feel better served than, say, ten years ago?

Is your digital life improving? Are the apps you use less confusing and frustrating than the ones you used ten years ago? How do you feel when you see an app update on your phone? Are you excited, or filled with apprehension?

Are your employment experiences improving?

A hopeful coda: A market dominated by passive dissatisfaction is ripe for disruption by companies who choose to compete on experience, and promise active satisfaction to people weary of diluted abuse.