Simplify your product
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A few weeks ago, we hosted an amazing talk in Paris by Rémi Guyot, VP of Product @BlaBlaCar. Here are some thoughts that emerged during this event as well as further readings.
Rémi noted that in a growing startup, complexity is everywhere, which means the usual advice to “Keep it simple, stupid” is actually bad. Keeping it simple is too often refusing to accept the situation. Things are complex, so you need to acknowledge that and fight complexity by developing the right antibodies 💊
That made sense, but I still had lots of questions: How do you develop the right mindset for simplicity? How do you recover from “product debt” (short-term product decisions leading to long-term problems in your user experience)? How do you manage people who aren’t yet aware of how important it is?
The Global Brand Simplicity Index shows the data in favor of simplicity: “The world’s simplest brands are ones that put clarity and ease at the heart of the customer experience”, “simplicity inspires deeper trust and strengthens loyalty. People are also more likely to recommend a brand that delivers simple experiences.”
As I went further on how businesses get there, it was clear that simplicity is not just a goal — it’s a skill. And because it isn’t easy to master, to get better you need to consciously practice it.
Acquire the right mindset 🤯
When you think about simplicity as it relates to your startup or your product, you can correlate it to other life concepts such as minimalism or essentialism.
“There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little.” — Jackie French Koller, author
Buddhist monks & Catholic nuns both look for wisdom and peace through a minimalist life. A lot of successful people like Mark Zuckerberg or Barack Obama (& Steve Jobs before them) wear the exact same thing every day. Warren Buffett believes the best startup pitch can fit on the back of a napkin. These are all ways of embracing minimalism in order to focus on what truly matters to them.
Essentialism is another trend promoting “less but better”. By stopping yourself from saying “yes” to everything, you can make the greatest contribution towards your true goals. In a world with too many choices thanks to the Internet, we need to know we can do anything, but not everything. Get over the FOMO 🙀
For entrepreneurs, this means one thing: “Focus.”
At The Family, we’ve seen that the most successful founders we encounter are also the most focused. If you want to be among them, be willing to make some sacrifices. Choose things to give up and decide where you want to go all in.
- Do one thing, and do it really well. Nearly all good startup ideas are narrow & deep, not broad & shallow.
- Focus on the customer, not on what other people might tell you. That sounds simple but it isn’t — it’s easy to be attracted by more and more topics, so you have to be rigorous about what you are (and aren’t) addressing.
- Tightening your pitch to consumers is a good exercise, it helps you get rid of the superficial and understand the true value of what you’re offering.
Prioritize like hell 🔥
Take the time to explore all your options. Understanding them is part of the process. But remember that process is meant to let you be more discerning so that you can do less.
Often we don’t make our own choices about where to focus. Various stakeholders (partners, individual users, employees) put pressure on us to ensure their goals are achieved. That’s why the first step to reaching simplicity is to clearly make those choices in our own minds.
One way to do that is Warren Buffett’s “2 lists” strategy: Choose the 10–15 things you want to address in your company, and then pick the 3 most important ones. The rest is the “Avoid at all costs” list 🙅♂️
If you take the iPod, for example, the 3 most important things were that it was small enough to fit in your pocket, had lots of storage & was easy to use with your Mac. That was it.
Apple didn’t try to launch multiple models or provide every possible feature. They only wanted to deliver the best experience they could, with one particular product at one particular moment.
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.” — Steve Jobs
Put all of your time and effort into the things that deserve all of your energy and that can get to a state of super high-quality — the kind of quality you need if you are building a startup.
Settling for second best goes against that. Don’t try to please everyone, it’s the best way to please no one.
Debt is a pit. Start building your ladder ⏳
Product debt comes from making rushed decisions & falling into the trap of constantly multiplying features.
If you feel your product has gotten too complex, step back and ask yourself: “How do I recover now that I am convinced I should adopt simplicity?”
Repaying product debt takes time, but if you’re determined, you’ll get through it:
- Get rid of your half-done experiments.
- Keep only the features aligned with your core focus and enhance their quality. Removing options is the quickest way to change behavior.
- Clean up your homepage. Send only one or two messages, and send them well.
- Do real A/B testing, try things that are true opposites.
- Bring authentic & high quality value to your core users & implicate them in your product updates.
For example, Instagram wasn’t always Instagram. First it was Burbn, and it wasn’t great 🥃
Mobile photos were an opportunity for Instagram, so they decided to cut off everything else, recovering their product debt like pros 😎
“We decided that if we were going to build a company, we wanted to focus on being really good at one thing.” — Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom
They focused on one main feature the majority of users wanted and stuck to that niche, removing all the complexity they generated. By bringing true value to this niche and seeking simplicity in every aspect, they reached the mass market.
Master your relationships with people 🤝
A lot of people will tell you that saying yes is good, that it’s how opportunities arise, they all loved that movie “Yes Man”. Of course, creating these new contexts that can bring you value is great, but when you’re building a particular project you have to make choices of where to spend your time.
Warren Buffett has said that “really successful people say no to almost everything.” But how do you manage your relationships with other people (partners, colleagues, employees) when you are a simplicity hero, saying no all the time?
By definition, when you make an effort to fight complexity you’re thinking differently than people who let themselves be driven by it. So when people come to you with an idea, a feature they want to develop, adopt the positive no. Never show you are against something, show you are for something.
A few more tips:
📂 Always start from the facts: “This is our mission today. This is what matters to this company.” Explain the thinking behind your decisions.
👊 Either kill it or accept it, no compromise. Don’t say, “Maybe in two weeks.” It’s either yes or no (whether it’s a “no for now” or a “no, never”).
😌 Keep emotions out of it — the ability to stay calm comes out of knowing you’re focusing on the right things.
