February: Reducing Friction
Why Making It Easier to do Business Will Win in 2026
In January, we focused on meeting customers where they are.
Understanding context. Assessing readiness. Proving value before asking for commitment.
That work matters because it exposes a bigger truth many organizations are now facing:
Most deals don’t stall because the solution is wrong.
They stall because doing business is hard.
As we move into 2026, friction has quietly become one of the biggest competitive differentiators.
Friction shows up everywhere:
Long evaluation cycles that exhaust internal teams
Demos that look impressive but don’t answer real questions
Decision-makers asked to take risk without proof
Processes that add steps instead of removing uncertainty
None of that builds confidence. It creates hesitation.
Reducing friction doesn’t mean cutting corners or oversimplifying complex decisions. It means designing the buying experience with the same care we put into designing the solution itself.
It starts before the first demo.
When we slow down to understand where a customer actually is; what they’re trying to solve, what constraints they’re operating under, and what success really looks like - we eliminate entire loops of rework later. Advisory conversations aren’t about adding meetings; they’re about removing unnecessary ones.
The same is true for proof of concepts.
POCs aren’t friction. Uncertainty is.
When buyers can see something work in their environment, with their data, against their real use cases, decisions accelerate. Internal alignment improves. Risk moves from assumed to measured. That’s not delay—that’s momentum.
In 2026, the expectation is clear:
Make it easy to evaluate.
Make it easy to justify.
Make it easy to move forward.
The companies that win won’t be the ones shouting the loudest about innovation. They’ll be the ones quietly removing obstacles; simplifying decisions, reducing risk, and respecting the reality buyers operate in.
February is about reducing friction.
Not by pushing harder, but by designing better paths forward.