Who doesn’t love checking in for a flight and getting upgraded to the next class?  Or when a hotel offers you a suite for the same price as a room?  Those are upgrades.  Those are the upgrades we love and appreciate and tell our friends about.

Technology upgrades on the other hand seem to occur randomly, without invitation.  Anyone with a smart phone has received notices of upgrades.  The ‘apps’ on phones seem to be relentlessly upgrading –with no discernable benefit to the user.

As a WordPress user I am familiar with ‘plug-ins’, widgets, and ‘shortcodes’.  As such, I fall prey to endless upgrades and updates.  For the vast majority of these updates, I notice not a whit of difference in the functionality of any particular widget or thingamahooey.  On occasion I have noticed the upgrade took away functions that I had enjoyed and replaced them with something far less useful.

Last week I published my post as per usual but the post did not go to my email subscribers.  The cause?  A glitch in an uninvited upgrade for one of my ‘widgets’.

All is fixed now, but I can’t help but wonder if the technology industry shouldn’t examine at what point is an upgrade a superficial add-on or in fact a downgrade?

The same should be true for all of us in any business.  If we are going to change the way we offer a business or service, the end experience of the user, client, or customer should be the main criterion for change.  Like an upgrade to first class from economy.  Now we’re talkin’ upgrade.

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