The test that comes out of it is blunt. If a Xero product manager can describe your product in one sentence, you are building inside their roadmap rather than beside it.
XeroCon UK saw core product replicating things long term partners already sold. Xero Force lets a firm write its own workflows and drop a tool out of the stack entirely. Xero has also opened its developer growth programme to practice apps, around five of them over six months, which John Toon reads as a question about where Xero Practice Manager is heading and whether one of those five gets bought later.
The balance the panel lands on is that Xero is now both the landlord and the competitor, and vendors have to pick their ground with that in mind. Since Xero and Intuit both put a price on API access, it costs money to stay connected too.
From the episode with John Toon, Kendrick Hair of Fishbowl and Leigh Stallard.
Digi-Tools in Accrual World is The Loop's weekly accounting tech podcast, hosted by Ryan Pearcy, John Toon, Indi Tatla, Eriona Bajrakurtaj and Ian Gregory.
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