I’ve been hearing this word getting thrown about all too often, always related to product features.
Hygiene – This word is apparently used to describe the features a product the user expects it to have, just as a price of entry. But, the association with cleanliness, sanitation, and public health, just make a disconnect for me here. And also, folks usually mean attributes that go deep into what the product is, such as ease-of-use, reliability, and so on. Therefore, ‘hygiene’ is often a throw away comment for things that are incredibly hard to do (tip o’ the hat to Matt). ‘Price of entry’ or ‘minimum required feature set’ or something like that, at least gives some value to all the hard work to create a solid foundation for a product upon which to then differentiate.
You can review all my previous ‘Tired Words’ here on this page.
The way I have understood the word “hygiene” is a bit different from your interpretation. That is, I consider “hygiene” as something that is critically important to do well enough, but you don’t really get any extra benefit for doing it particularly well. This means that you can’t differentiate yourself with hygiene, but failing in it makes you smell.
Defined like this, I don’t find this concept tired at all. On the contrary, I find the message quite universal and timeless.
Feel free to hate me 🙂