Simple vs Flexible

How to cover both ends of the spectrum

There’s an awesome movement in the Software / SaaS industry right now that’s focused on making things simple…for users and creators.

Building a Minimum Viable Product, trimming features, and generally keeping things as simple as possible makes a ton of sense.

What I’ve found in the past few years of building a goal tracking app, is that for some industries/markets, Flexibility is a higher priority than Simplicity.

Without a doubt, we ALL want things to be easy to use, but in this case flexibility and control is far more important to our users.

This has made it difficult for us to follow The Lean Startup in some ways, but we’re doing our best.

So, my team and I have been working hard to figure it out, and I want to share some insights we’ve come across, starting with an example:

1. Photoshop is complex, but insanely flexible. Instagram is super simple, but far less flexible. It’s easier to build Instagram’s photo editing features, and it’s easier to use, but it lacks “power user” control.
2. This only matters if your ideal user is a power user, which is driven by your business model. Instagram didn’t need premium features because they chose to focus on the masses…which Facebook liked. ☺
3. They recognized that most people don’t want to fiddle with 1,000 buttons. They just want to tap and apply a filter that will make their photo look cooler. They just get to choose which one to tap. Simple.
4. But, this is not how things works for some markets (like ours, goals). People have countless ways of setting, planning & tracking their goals and habits, so flexibility is crucial for the majority of our users.
5. It’s possible to find the 20% of features that offer 80% of the value, and those are the ones to focus on. But in some cases, it’s that next level where the magic happens…it’s how you multiply the value added.

Bottom line: If your ideal user doesn’t want another watered-down app with little to no lasting value, don’t be afraid to build the Most Valuable Product you can, instead of the Minimum Viable Product that’s easier to ship.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for building an MVP, testing, validating, analyzing and tweaking. It’s what we’ve been doing since we launched our 1.0 last year, and I love how far we’ve come because of it.

It’s just important to note that going above and beyond the barebones feature set is doable, and you owe it to your users.

So sure, build something ‘minimal’ to ship your idea. But please:

Focus on Simplicity, then offer Flexibility to increase value.

You don’t have to choose one or the other. Offering more to power users doesn’t have to mean complicating the user experience.

The key is to find a balance and build something that your entire target market will think is simple, but offers more value underneath the first layer so your users get more and more from it over time.

We’re no where near finished with this process, but we’re gradually chipping away at the things that don’t matter, and focusing on the things that add the most value for our users. I can’t wait to see how it all goes. Good luck with your product!