Doing Less Not More

Why do we have such a problem letting things go?

Something I’ve noticed over the last few months of design work:

People are much more comfortable talking about automation rather than abandonment.

Automating is easy — taking all the stuff that no-one really wanted to do anyway and giving it to a computer.

Abandonment on the other is hand is about letting go. Stopping doing things and saying goodbye.

When I visited Apple a couple of years ago they made the point that all their products fitted on one slide. This basic rule meant each addition to the range led to something being dropped.

Equally Apple are highly standardised — their strategy is to satisfy the same types of customer need regardless of geographical location. Whether you grow up in Manchester or Mumbai — you have the same need and you get the same service.

Most of our organisations don’t operate like this because we’ve convinced ourselves that we cater to more complex needs.

Do we really?

Our second design principle is all about refinement. Just because there’s a problem doesn’t mean you’re the best person to solve it.

Many of our organisations have bought into the notion that we need to do “more with less” despite there being no evidence base that says this is achievable.

Instead of trying to do more with less, we would be better advised to focus on doing LESS with less.

The new reality is about letting things go forever.

My reflection is that I haven’t pushed my organisation hard enough on this, but I guess I’m not alone.