The Simplicity Cycle
Monday: May 28, 2007 9:06 PM
Dan Ward just published a wonderful book on the simplicity cycle. He presents an idea that we will all kick ourselves for not coming up with it. The basic is that we start at ground zero on a two dimensional chart where the Y-axis is the complexity of the product and the X-Axis is the goodness of the product. As you add additional features, the value of the product increases. This will continue for a period of time until you hit a point where adding additional features will actually decrease the value or goodness of the product. At this point we want to begin to reduce the complexity which will allow us the ability to continue to increase the value. See the IPod as a great example.
Eric Raymond describes this as Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.
In the collaborative and social software arena, we see this when technology professionals focus on many of the open source products that have so many features that make them difficult to roll out to the business community. Yet, it seems that it’s the simplest applications that are exploding on the web. We still want to add that one extra feature; why not allow personal spaces on the wiki or profiles on the blog. Personally, this is an argument of should we versus could we. If the “coulds” keep winning, mass adoption will remain an elusive dream.
Dan Ward just published a wonderful book on the simplicity cycle. He presents an idea that we will all kick ourselves for not coming up with it. The basic is that we start at ground zero on a two dimensional chart where the Y-axis is the complexity of the product and the X-Axis is the goodness of the product. As you add additional features, the value of the product increases. This will continue for a period of time until you hit a point where adding additional features will actually decrease the value or goodness of the product. At this point we want to begin to reduce the complexity which will allow us the ability to continue to increase the value. See the IPod as a great example.
Eric Raymond describes this as Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.
In the collaborative and social software arena, we see this when technology professionals focus on many of the open source products that have so many features that make them difficult to roll out to the business community. Yet, it seems that it’s the simplest applications that are exploding on the web. We still want to add that one extra feature; why not allow personal spaces on the wiki or profiles on the blog. Personally, this is an argument of should we versus could we. If the “coulds” keep winning, mass adoption will remain an elusive dream.
