A year back, around similar time, I had the great privilege to co-present alongside @sharadkohli26 at @urbancompany_UC tech offsite. Shall share the presentation here.

Topic: "Simple"

#productmanagement

Try solving this. Guess the logic governing this sequence.
Do not jump to next tweet till you have an answer in your head.

2/n

Let us start. What is simple?
This is a good time to write your answer on the sequence in this thread or on your device.
It is important you write it down so that you don’t change it later? :)
3/n

Answer: Any 3 numbers in ascending order!

What did you write? Arithmetic progression? Geometric Progression? c= a*b?
All right answers, but NOT simple enough :)

4/n

First rule to thinking simple is classic Occam’s razor. When in doubt take the simplest answer forward. Do not make assumptions unless you are forced to.
5/n

Before you stop reading further, it is important to quickly agree on what is simple?
Simple doesn’t mean simplistic.

Remember Supandi the simpleton from Tinkle comics?
With due respect to Supandi (whom I absolutely adore), being simple doesn’t mean being a simpleton

6/n

Let us understand simplistic>>complex>>simple on a product scale.
Does anyone remember the “Yo” app - it was a rage back in the day. 10mn+ downloads, with everyone “Yo’in” each other. Unfortunately, it died before most could share their 2nd Yo.

7/n

If Yo is simplistic, then Google Wave has to be Complex (close eyes!)
https://support.google.com/answer/1083134?hl=en

8/n

It is but obvious for you to complete the analogy now.

Simplistic:Yo App::Complex:Google Wave::Simple:??
Hint: It is a $19b acquisition

9/10

Assume now you are getting the simple beat. Let us drive home this concept further.

Example #1: If I say coolie is complex then what is simple?

10/n

Answer: Trolleys Bags.
Fun fact the first inventor of Trolleys had to fight to get PMF. It was not so simple in first insight. People believed the simpler way to transport luggage is to get the coolie have a large trolley

11/n

Simple scales. 


Example #2: Remember AltaVista? The search engine that literally killed the spirit of search?

You could search for anything and everything, but first you needed the search the section from where to start search! (Ctrl + F)

12/n

Thank God for Larry Page and Sergey Brin

(See pic: Google gets Simple!)

13/n

Example #3: 500 @Flipkart coins (or super coins) to anyone who explains me the concept of Flipkart coins
(Out of 100 folks in UC offsite, none knew what Flipkart Coins stood for). Flipkart we love you, but we had to use this to explain what comes next.

14/n

No surprise. 90%+ of folks recalled Amazon Prime value prop. Most forgot Amazon Music (but then who listens to Amazon Music)

15/n

Now that we understand the power and scalability of simple. Why is everything not so simple? 

Sigh, if only simple were that simple?

Biggest enemy of simple imho, is our own bias towards complexity being cool and dealing with others perception of being "simpleton"

16/n

It is extremely important to understand getting to simple is not at all simple.
20+ logics are triggered to just arrive whether a @SlackHQ message should trigger a notification or not.

Journey to simple product is often not a straight line.
Across the dimension of time, one takes the following route towards reaching a simple solution.

18/n

Step 1: First comes a brute force product/ solution

19a/n

Everyone knows my admiration for @narendramodi , but this is the best example we could get.

19b/n

Because it is Fri morning. I can engage in one more :)
How Kim Jong-un solved Covid?

19c/n

Why brute force happens?

20/n

Most PMs these days are not tone deaf. Social media ensures that!
So what comes next after brute force? >> Complex Product

21/n

Complexity is owing to multiple reasons largely lack of time, solving many things in one attempt, edge cases - all lead to complexity in product.

(and this part deserves an overwhelming mental high-5 from all PMs on this thread!)

22/n

If simple is so hard, is it even worth it?

23/n

Well we are not alone in our pursuit of truth!

24/n

So, how to achieve simple? Few mental models follow:

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Words of wisdom from Anonymous Dev. Less is indeed more.

26/n

Insight #1: Be paranoid on framing the problem right?

27/n

Insight #2: Next avoid Featuritis like plague.
Anti-product roadmap - what features do we no longer need?
Always rmr, somethings are here today because they were there yesterday

28/n

Insight #3: Making peace with constraints. Every thing has a trade-off. EVERYTHING. Be okay with making them when the time comes.
Have the faith to be wrong in your own name.

29/n

So when is SIMPLE achieved?

30/n (we are in end game, few more)

Look for the "of-course" moment?

31/n

@JeffBezos copied this from our work in his farewell email to @amazon

32/n

@alexa99 has stopped working. I was just joking @JeffBezos

One final example on SIMPLE.
All
@Apple
products are simple.

33/n

10k songs in your pocket.

Finally, just remember, the journey to SIMPLE is hard and you are not alone. May Jobs be with you :)
Have a great day!

Fun Fact:
@Autobio_of_Yogi
by Paramhansa Yogananda was Jobs' fav reads.
Simplicity is not just a way to build products but also to love life :)

n/n

P.S. We are also learning. Any additions/ Reactions to the thread - pls share here. We are listening
@sharadkohli26