Growth Should Never Make a Product Worse
Very few products become simpler as they grow. I think they should.
Most products start simple.
Then they grow.
More customers arrive.
More employees are hired.
More meetings happen.
More features get added.
And slowly, almost imperceptibly, the product becomes harder to use.
Very few products become simpler as they grow.
Most become more complicated.
Features are added because a customer requested them.
Settings are added because someone needed flexibility.
Menus appear. Submenus appear. Toggles multiply.
Individually, each change seems reasonable.
Collectively, they bury the product.
Complexity accumulates quietly.
I think products should become simpler every year.
Growing shouldn't mean sacrificing clarity.
Growth should never make a product worse.
Removing things is difficult because it requires conviction. Saying yes is easy. Saying no requires a point of view.
The products people love most are usually opinionated.
They make decisions.
They remove choices.
They guide people.
Restraint is one of the most valuable skills in product design.
As AI makes software easier to build, this becomes even more important.
The future won't belong to the companies that build the most.
It will belong to the companies with the taste to build less.