Harvard Business Review recently did a really interesting article about 37 Signals. Apparently their secret sauce is recognizing that less is more:
“When you’re competing against companies that have so much more, the only answer is to do less,” Jason and David told me. “Do less than your competitors to beat them. Instead of one-upping other companies, one-down them. Instead of out-doing other products, under-do them.”
If Pareto’s law applies to your business (hint: it does) then you should absolutely be asking yourself questions like:
- Does it really make sense for me to be vertically integrated? Or should I just pass on that other business?
- Is any aspect of my product offering overengineered?
- If I re-released a feature-dieted version of my product, would most people complain or be delighted?
