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According to Steve Jobs, “Simple can be more difficult than complex: you have to work hard to organize your thinking and make it simple.” It seems obvious that keeping it easy will help your business succeed. And yet it is surprisingly difficult.
If simplicity is so difficult, you should consciously make it a reality. That’s why many successful corporations actively embrace it as a value. Ikea’s emphasis on simplicity is evident in its designs, catalog, store service and more. One of Nike’s 11 management maxims is “simplify and act,” focusing teams on moving quickly to adapt to latest technology and fashion.
I consider that simplicity is the engine of sensible innovation. My journey as an entrepreneur actually began with the idea of simplifying a complex and bureaucratic process. Today, the success of this concept has created latest challenges. We serve hundreds of thousands of consumers in over 100 countries with many different needs – to satisfy all of them, we would wish a multitude of various features. So we’d like to seek out the simplest ideas that can improve the experience for as many users as possible.
Simplifying innovation is the recipe for success
Some people consider that to be an entrepreneur, you have to introduce breakthrough technological innovations to the world. But in fact, there is a lot of room for innovation based on latest technologies, simplifying them and packaging them for specific applications.
If you think about the two technology giants of our time, Google and Apple, neither of them invented their core technologies. Apple was not the first company to create a home computer or cell phone, Google was not the first company to develop a search engine. They made existing innovations simpler and more user-friendly, which was a recipe for success.
This is especially vital now, in the face of the revolution powered by generative artificial intelligence. There is definitely huge opportunity in creating latest AI-based technologies, but much more opportunity lies in finding ways to mix these technologies into user-friendly software for specific applications.
To do this, first master the technology and then put yourself in the shoes of a potential user. Try to know what is really useful about the innovation and what barriers people may encounter when attempting to use it.
The key is to seek out a method to simplify the technology so that it is easier for your goal users to know and implement. Do this and you might be a winner.
Work smarter by simplifying communication
Another a part of any business where simplification is extremely vital is communication and processes. As a company grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to get people on the same page or ensure continuity between departments. Poor communication causes misunderstandings that may result in mistakes. The more people involved in a project, the more likely the workflow will turn out to be complex. All this slows you down, wastes time and limits your ability to affect your business.
Let’s start with communication. Using one, easy language throughout your company is crucial so that individuals can understand each other. For example, try to make use of less jargon and fewer three-letter acronyms, or be sure you explain them if you do. By creating organized archives of historical documents and plans, you help onboard latest people and everyone can quickly find vital information when they need it.
Create a culture of transparency where different departments share their plans. Create a framework to facilitate this, comparable to quarterly reviews or motion plan implementations. It’s impossible for employees to be actively involved in the whole lot that is going on in the company, but by helping everyone to participate passively, you make sure they’re on the same page and can facilitate ideas and collaboration between teams.
When that you must communicate, encourage your teams to do so in the easiest way possible. By simplifying communication and making it easier to know, discussions are more focused and decisions are made faster.
Put simplicity at the heart of your product
The simplification mindset may also be applied to product development. By making small incremental changes, sometimes with user testing groups, you should use the inspect and adapt methodology to know their adoption in addition to any issues and innovate accordingly. Every so often, you possibly can mix all of those small changes into a big product update that you just roll out to everyone.
For example: The company has added a lot of additional value to its product with latest features and releases. In theory, this was a great solution for users, but some found the user interface overwhelming and the latest pricing options confusing. To use a metaphor, some people are completely satisfied to be given ingredients to organize a meal themselves, but most individuals prefer to have a chef cook so they’ll enjoy the final result.
Realizing this through their feedback, the company made a change to its user interface that helped users get the final result they wanted without having to work hard to attain it themselves. To put it simply, the company has maximized the value impact of all latest product additions.
Richard Branson once said, “Any fool can complicate something. It’s hard to keep it simple.” Simplicity doesn’t occur by accident – you have to be intentional. You must call it out and make it a company-wide concern. You have to place this at the heart of the whole lot. And when you succeed, the impact might be enormous.