We have all come across superior products. They help getting things done in an unprecedented way, solve a big pain or provide with irresistible entertainment. Almost all of them have one shared characteristic: they are simple to use and unterstand. When a product is complicated, users tend to complain about it. On the other hand, when a product is simple, users do not mind paying more for it. However, despite of its demand, simplicity is not the first criterion when designing and engineering products. Indeed, product simplicity is made, not born. And product simplification requires focus and discipline.
The product simplification challenge
Recent research by Gabrielle Adams shows that, when asked to improve objects or situations, people think about what they can add rather than what they might subtract to the object or situation. This means that designers, product managers and innovators have a strong tendency to add product features instead of removing them. For example, the story of Demio, a marketing platform, is a typical example that shows what often happens to new products, especially technology ones. It all starts with a great idea and a simple concept. The MVP is successful and early users start suggesting new features. The team is motivated and tries to satisfy as many needs as possible. But the product quickly becomes complicated. Demio’s story has a happy ending, because they realized early enough that the product was losing customer interest and stability, so they changed product development strategy, simplified the product and survived.
That said, although products can be simplified, they cannot all become simple. Some products are complex by their nature. For example, probably nobody would fly on an aircraft with a “simplified” cockpit panel. Some products need to be complex because the jobs they are supporting are also complex. Still, complexity is not an excuse for complication. Cockpits, indeed, are already the simple version of a complex user interface that supports a complex job such as flying an airplane.
Examples of simple products
In many cases simplification allows to satisfy needs or solve problems that a previous product could not address. In some other cases simple products come as a natural evolution of an existing product. Let’s get some inspiration from some successful examples of “simplified” consumer products.
Bicycles for children and adults
During one of the last episodes of Choiceology, Katy Milkman’s introduced the founder of Strider bikes, Ryan McFarland, a father that badly wanted his child to ride a bike already at two years of age. But he was disappointed by the available bicycles, which were sized for older kids. He just wanted something to help his son to find his balance and have fun with bicycles. So, he built his own bike, in an unusual way. He took the smallest bicycle he could possibly find, removed the pedals and the drivetrain, and lowered the seat-post. The result was what we know as the balance bicycle. Strider bikes became a multimillion dollars business in just a few years. In this case, the simple product addressed an unsatisfied need by removing features from an existing product.
Bicycles are the most energy-efficient transportation mode, so it is worth introducing another simple type of bicycle. It is the single-speed bike. It is a model that has existed for ages. All the major bike brands have one or more single-speed bikes in their product range. Single-speed bikes are similar to traditional bikes, but they have only one gear, one chain ring at the front and one sprocket at the rear. They do not appeal to every cyclist, because they are not particularly comfortable to ride. However, there are cyclists that all they want is a light bike with low maintenance needs and reasonable price. They don’t mind the extra effort when sprinting from traffic lights. The single-speed bike is the bike that does the job for them.
Dumb phones
If you find bikes not that interesting, there is a simple version of a product that almost everyone owns, the mobile phone. Dumb phones, or feature phones, already existed more than 20 years ago, when smart phones were not around yet. Now they are coming back. Since 2018, the sales growth of dumb phones has outpaced the sales of traditional phones, and in 2021 sales hit 1 billion units globally. They allow to call, text and play arcade games, but they do not have internet. The iconic Nokia 3310 is one of many examples. A more recent and smarter dumbphone is the Light Phone. It has the main smartphone’s core features, such as touchscreen, Bluetooth and internet. However, internet is used only to access music, get directions, and have a hotspot functionality. Surprisingly, there is no internet browser, no social media and even no email. The result is that in 2021 sales were up by 150% with respect to 2020.
So, why dumb phones are so attractive? The answer is in what needs and pains they address. Indeed, a wider and wider niche of consumers feel overwhelmed and distracted by the quantity of information that smartphones continuously provide and they often desire to be disconnected from the internet. Some other people prefer dumbphones to their smart counterparts because they are afraid of being spied through the internet. Finally, some people are not happy for smartphones’ short battery life and mediocre durability, so they are ready to give away features in exchange of more convenience and economics.
Cloud storage and file synchronization
Nowadays we assume any technology-based product to be user friendly. When we use a mobile app for anything from ordering a pizza to buying car insurance, we expect the experience to be quick and seamless, no matter how complex is the process behind. But let’s go back 15 years, when user experience was not taken for granted. In 2007 a new entrant disrupted the cloud storage industry, Dropbox. Dropbox managed to solve a complex problem with an apparently simple solution. Specifically, modifying and synchronizing a file across multiple devices was, back then, very painful and tedious. Any incumbent cloud service would in a way or another be clunky and have issues with synchronizing file states.
Then Dropbox came and brought a great technical solution that could cope with different operating systems and computing hardware. Thanks to his technical improvement, Dropbox could provide with a simpler user experience. So, users could perform file synchronization in a seamless and effortless way. While the product was complex in the back, it looked simple in front of the users. No other market player, including Apple, had been able to reach that level of simplification before.
The benefits of product simplification
In order to ride the trend, we first need to understand it. So, why is product simplification a successful strategy? Here are some of the aspects that generally make product simplification successful.
- Higher product quality. Simple products get team and resources focused on few key features, without diluting the effort on many tiny irrelevant features. The result is higher product quality, which sells by itself.
- Higher perceived value for money. Simpler products are often perceived as cheaper than their feature-rich counterparts. And for some customers simpler products are not just a matter of saving money. It is about getting the most value out of their money. The more features a product has, the more likely it is that customers will find some features useless. As a result, the perceived value for money of the whole product will suffer.
- Faster purchasing decisions. Simpler products require customers less time to decide if they really need the product, as research shows. So, the shorter the time to decide, the higher the probability of purchasing.
- More effective marketing. Simpler products and brands are simpler to explain. As a result, consumers are more likely to recommend a brand when it provides simpler experiences and communications.
- Higher conversion rate. Converting customers to paying ones is vital for products that have a freemium pricing model. Studies show that when premium features consists of just upgraded freemium features, a product is more likely to convert customers from freemium to premium than a product where premium features expand the number of features.
How to execute product simplification
Simple products are not born but made. Simplification requires time and effort. One of the 12 principles of the agile manifesto explicitly mentions “simplicity”. Indeed, the KISS (“Keep it Simple, Stupid”) design principle has been, in a way or another, advocated by the greatest inventors, designers and scientists in history. Here are 7 suggestions on how to simplify products.
1. Start with the main customer problem
The first step towards building simpler products is resisting the temptation to design a solution without analyzing the problem. Prior to think about product features, understanding the problem is key to avoid solving for the wrong problem. Once the problem is clear, searched solutions will be more specific and fit to the customer problem. Specific solutions are simpler than generic ones, because they are designed around fewer and more precise assumptions.
2. Avoid the “sunk cost” fallacy
When customer feedback reveals that a feature is useless or even nasty, letting it go should be the rational step towards a better product. However, removing features is hard. It feels like going backwards and erasing previous efforts. So, how to avoid this “sunk cost” fallacy? First, it is key to be aware that removing a feature is mentally difficult to accept for anyone that invested on it. Second, the removal should be seen as a step forward rather than backwards. In other words, it is important to frankly ask “could have we reached this level of customer knowledge without building that feature in the first place?”
3. Improve first with quick wins
Convincing stakeholders about the virtues of product simplification is often tough. So, any major product simplification effort, whether on the product front-end, on the architecture or on the branding, takes time. Starting by proving the value of simplification is more effective. In practice, this means focusing on simplifying features or product items that are easy to complete and have a meaningful impact on the customer. In this way stakeholders will increase confidence product simplification, so that going after larger and more impactful improvements can be more easily justified.
4. Prioritize
Complicated products are sometimes due to impatient customers. Clearly, there is nothing wrong with impatience. After all, it is a signal of customer interest. But when customer requests are too frequent, the pressure to satisfy them increases. As a result, product development goes into chaotic mode and the product risks to become a “Frankenstein”. In this case, the role of the product manager is crucial to harmonize requests and ensure the product keeps up to its promises and its vision. This requires to step back to the reasons behind the requests, to find common themes among them and prioritize them to maximize the value delivered by the product with the minimum number of features.
5. Measure product performance
Before product simplification is implemented, it is important to define concrete business objectives and relative indicators on how the change will impact customer experience. Once the change is implemented, measuring indicators validates or disproves how simplification concretely impacts customer experience.
6. Modularize
When a product’s market grows, different product versions are often necessary so that the product can appeal to different customer segments. New versions complicate the product portfolio because the number of interfaces between components increases exponentially. In this case, it becomes vital to revisit the product and its architecture so that they are defined and developed modularly. In this way, introducing new components or features does not majorly impact the product in terms of stability, usability and learnability.
7. Stay with the customer
When products are complex by nature, simplification means something else than removing features. Take life or retirement insurance, for example. With all the possible plans and waivers suiting different customers, there is simply no one-size-fits-all product that can accommodate for all customers. In these cases simplification is not achieved by removing features but by simplifying the customer journey. In the insurance example, successful companies assist customers in two ways. First, they offer seamless and engaging experiences for prospects and customers both prior, during and after purchase. Second, they go the extra mile by offering each and every customer with a personalized experience to match different levels of knowledge, risk appetites and insurance needs.
Conclusion
Product simplification improves customer satisfaction. Yet, it is so tempting to design complicated products and manage them towards unjustifiable complexity. By staying true to product simplification and following the suggestions in this post, it should be possible to avoid falling into the product complication trap.
Some products are and must be complex by nature. Nevertheless, complexity is not a synonym of complication. Every product, no matter how complex it is, has a simpler version or, at least, a simpler user experience to offer. Rewards are just around the corner.