I believe there is a shift happening in software. For years, the promise was customizability—vendors built flexible tools, and customers spent time and money tailoring them to fit their workflows.

But things are changing. It’s getting easier and cheaper to build personalized software, and we’re seeing a growing demand for what I’d call “opinionated software.”

Here’s what I mean by that…

Opinionated software doesn’t just give you tools; it gives you a process to adopt right out of the box.

Why does this matter? Because the old model—buy a tool, hire a team to customize and implement it, and hope your team adopts it—just isn’t sustainable anymore. Too many companies invest in tools they never fully use.

Instead, more users want ready-made solutions. Tools that ship with templates, playbooks, or best-practice workflows baked in. They want to get value on Day 1, not after a six-month implementation and an expensive consultant to implement it. (I’ve been one of those consultants, so I don’t take this lightly.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about this as I build my own nightstand and weekends software project for product marketers (I posted about this on Monday). The feedback is clear: people don’t just want tools—they want guidance on how to use them.

In many ways, I think we’re entering the golden age of opinionated software. It’s what companies like Basecamp have been doing for years—offering strong opinions about how work should get done, not just handing users a blank slate.

I’m curious to explore more of these workflows. What other examples of opinionated software do you love? Let’s keep the conversation going.