Every time you add something you take something away

"What’s the most ignored paradox in software development? Every time you add something you take something away.

Screen real estate. Interface clarity. Simplified testing. Shorter development time. Certainty. Agility. Managability. Familiarity. Adding anything dilutes everything else. That’s not always a bad thing, just be aware of it. Be aware of the trade-offs.

The dilution effect is why maintaining a clear vision for your product is so important. Without a clear understanding of the limits and boundaries of your product, the product will morph into something you no longer recognize. Or worse, something you can no longer manage or control.

Jason Fried, "Every time you add something you take something away," Signal vs. Noise, 37signals.com, 4 Mar 2006, www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/every_time_you_add_something_you_take_something_away.php.

it is better ... to grow out of something ...

We believe that it is better for customers to grow out of something than to not be able to grow into it in the first place. And there are a lot of products out there where new customers can't grow into them anymore because they have gotten so complex and have so much stuff that they are too confusing for new people and that is when disruptive businesses can come in and nail the simple side of things, which is always a bigger market there is always more people willing to use something that just works than complex professional stuff.

Transcribed from Jason Fried, "10 Things We've Learned at 37signals," 2008 SXSW Interactive, 8 Mar 2008, audio.sxsw.com/podcast/interactive/panels/2008/SXSW08.INT.20080308.10Things37Signals.mp3, quote starts at 55:25.
Additional references:
Sean Ammirati, "SXSW: Lessons Learned at 37 Signals," ReadWriteWeb, 8 Mar 2008, www.readwriteweb.com/archives/sxsw_lessons_learned_at_37signals.php.
Jason Fried, "Question your work," A design and usability blog: Signal vs. Noise, 37signals.com, 17 Mar 2008, www.37signals.com/svn/posts/913-question-your-work.
"SXSW session recap: Jason Fried of 37signals," Hoover’s Business Insight Zone, 9 Mar 2008, www.hooversbiz.com/2008/03/09/sxsw-session-recap-jason-fried-of-37signals.

When in doubt, do something

When we started OpenSocial [a universal platform for social-network applications], we didn't know what the outcome was going to be. But we knew that this was an area where there was an opportunity to do something dramatic and game changing. We asked, 'What's the easiest way to get third parties to build compelling applications for social networks that leverage Google's assets?' We started running a bunch of experiments. We set an operational tempo: When in doubt, do something. If you have two paths and you're not sure which is right, take the fastest path. What's true in physics about objects in motion is true when you're creating a product. It's easier to keep moving and change course than when you're sitting and thinking and thinking.

Chuck Salter, "David Glazer (part of The Faces and Voices of Google)," Fast Company, March 2008, p. 84, www.fastcompany.com/fast50_08/google_david-glazer.html.

okay with ambiguity

I'll ask candidates who aren't engineers how to build a Web crawler. The right answer doesn't matter. I want to hear you think the problem through, because the odds are good that since we're an innovative company, you're not going to know how to do what you're going to be asked to do. You're going to have to figure it out. I want to know that you're okay with ambiguity.

Chuck Salter, "Douglas Merrill (part of The Faces and Voices of Google)," Fast Company, March 2008, p. 77, www.fastcompany.com/fast50_08/google_douglas-merrill.html .

embrace change

Q: What do you think it think it takes to succeed in the sea level of an innovative company?

A: Well, you have to be innovative, which means you have to embrace change. And change is threatening to many people.

I often hear people say they want to be in a company like ours, but they never have been and once they get there the pace of change is very unsettling.

We have taken the Ross Perot approach to evolving the business model. And by that I mean, we try many versions of one thing at the same time and let the market place tell us which thing works best. And then we rapidly iterate on that thing to make it better and better and better and better.

The alternative approach would be to study it ad nauseam, pick one, put the one thing in the marketplace and then slavishly work to improve the one thing. That is not the model we have built the business with.

We pride ourselves on our ability to very rapidly iterate. And to test, test, test, test, test, test, test. And let the marketplace inform us about what works.

Transcribed from "Featured Interview: Barry McCarthy, Chief Financial Officer of Netflix," iinnovate podcast, 13 Jan 2008, iinnovate.blogspot.com/2008/01/mccarthy.html (quote starts at 14:56).

MAYA Design: Papers

MAYA Design: Papers

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry: "According to Paul Roth, AT&T's president of marketing, the carrier is exploring new products and services — like mobile banking — that take advantage of the iPhone's capabilities. 'We're thinking about the market differently,' Roth says. In other words, the very development that wireless carriers feared for so long may prove to be exactly what they need."

The best products aren’t the ones with the most features

The best products aren’t the ones with the most features. The best products are those whose features are tightly integrated with the solutions they provide, making them the most usable.

Apple Inc, "Making Design Decisions," Apple Human Interface Guidelines, 9 Jun 2008, p. 28, developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGDesignProcess/chapter_3_section_3.html.

from the user in

"Leopard is magnificent code architected from the user in, rather than from core technology out."

Tom Yager, "Apple OS X Leopard: A beautiful upgrade," InfoWorld, October 17, 2007.

field studies - wider range of behaviors

"But field studies are still invaluable; they show us a wider range of behaviors than we see in the laboratory and let us assess the impact of changing contexts and other ethnographic variables."

Jakob Nielsen, "Intranet Usability Shows Huge Advances," Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, 9 Oct 2007, www.useit.com/alertbox/intranet-usability.html.