More ≠ Better
Years ago, Paul Buchheit, YC Partner, and Gmail creator wrote my favorite article on product design on how to make software users choose and love. I want to share it with you. I’m just quoting my favorites pieces here with a bit of commentary, but it’s so good, you should just read it.
Paul’s main idea is that great products aren’t determined by the sheer quantity of features, but rather a well-crafted core — get that right and nothing else matters. Paul argues that winning products narrow their scope and focus on three things.
“Pick three key attributes or features, get those things very, very right, and then forget about everything else. The essentials, well executed.”
He continues to explain that the allure of ‘more’ is a reason why most people struggle with product design. They see what competitors have, add up the set, and assume a ‘successful product’ must have the full list.
“Those missing features are typically available in a variety of unsuccessful competing products, which leads people to erroneously conclude that a successful product would necessarily have even more features!”
The powerful thing about this point of view is it forces a team to really work out the details. It’s very easy to spread attention across a wide surface area — this is an anti-pattern. Scope should operate like a magnifying glass — no focus, no fire.
“By focusing on only a few core features in the first version, you are forced to find the true essence and value of the product. If the basic product isn’t compelling, adding more features won’t save it.”
Said another way…
“If your product is great, it doesn’t need to be good.”
Read that last line again. It’s a doozy. It means that if you get the core right, you can ignore the rest. If Geoffrey Moore were here he’d regale us with tales of core and context, but I digress. If you’re on a product team, you just have one question to ask yourself:
“Are you focusing at least 80% of your effort on getting those three things right?”
More ≠ Better
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