twointwomillion
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"Ugh, it's so damn complicated!" That's a phrase you hear often from consumers, journalists, and aspiring founders about a product.
Complexity is often a source of grievance.
So in order to make products better, we like we have to focus on simplicity. We cut out all those useless features and just focus on the core that's actually good.
There's some truth to that.. but the problem is that consumers often aren't as logical as we assume they are when we think about their behavior.
So while they may preach that they hate complexity, it might be that it's that very complexity that made them buy in the first place. And in fact, if you carefully study consumers, this is exactly what you'll find.
Ceteris paribus, consumers want the most powerful product. Complexity sells. But it's that same complexity that hurts consumer satisfaction post-purchase.
Then why do consumers buy?
Fool me once right?
Because people are greedy. When we're shopping, we're in bang for buck mode. And it's extremely hard to make a rational decision instead of an emotional one and say "I'm gonna spend more on less because it'll save me headaches in the future." Instead, they rationalize that the bad stuff "won't be so bad."
So if you need complexity to make the sell and if that very complexity negatively impacts consumer satisfaction afterward, we got ourselves a nice little conundrum.
How to manage complexity effectively?
BJ Fogg (2009) showed that behavior occurs as a consequence of 3 components coming together at the right time:
When we're thinking about consumers (or users) making a purchasing decision we should look at these things.
How easy do we make it for them to take action (ability)? We can break this down into 8 sub-categories:
Money, time, physical effort, mental effort, social deviance, non-routine, location in time, and location in space.
By thinking about these components strategically, we can make the purchasing decision as easy as possible.
But to a large extent, purchases are a function of motivation. How badly do they wanna buy it? If they want it super badly (motivation is high), they'll deal with hurdles themselves. (Look at Amazon's shitty UI for example.)
In order to get motivation high, you need to think about The Job To Be Done (Christensen, Anthony, Berstell & Nitterhouse, 2007) and Acute Satisfaction.
An employer hires an employee to solve for a particular problem or job. A consumer hires a product to do the same thing. Understanding the JTBD makes sure that your simplification isn't akin to building a car with 1 wheel and no steering wheel. It makes sure that you deliver the right features to your consumers or users.
Acute Satisfaction refers to the amount of pleasure a consumer is getting in the moment from buying your product. I.e. Cool shit.
AS is what people complain about post-purchase. E.g. Macbook's touch bar or butterfly mechanism. Consumers want new. Consumers want more. Consumers want maximization.
There's a reason why minimalism is a movement and maximalism isn't. It's because human beings have a natural inclination toward increasing entropy. Being satisfied with less is learned behavior that takes effort. The accumulation of more shit does not.
But it's important to take a long-term perspective. There's too much focus on short-term optimization right now. Be it internal pressure from founders or external pressure from investors. If you take a long-term and short-term perspective (bothism, see Ritson, 2020) then you'll not only take short-term optimization into account but also longevity. This makes sure NPS, brand perception, churn, CAC, and LTV are managed properly vs. being hurt as a consequence of a quick win. Which is exactly the mistake most companies make nowadays.
For a more in-depth explanation on the thesis laid out here, you can read this essay: LINK IN COMMENTS
I hope this has been both enlightening and enjoyable.
Have a good one.
RJ Youngling
Complexity is often a source of grievance.
So in order to make products better, we like we have to focus on simplicity. We cut out all those useless features and just focus on the core that's actually good.
There's some truth to that.. but the problem is that consumers often aren't as logical as we assume they are when we think about their behavior.
So while they may preach that they hate complexity, it might be that it's that very complexity that made them buy in the first place. And in fact, if you carefully study consumers, this is exactly what you'll find.
Ceteris paribus, consumers want the most powerful product. Complexity sells. But it's that same complexity that hurts consumer satisfaction post-purchase.
Then why do consumers buy?
Fool me once right?
Because people are greedy. When we're shopping, we're in bang for buck mode. And it's extremely hard to make a rational decision instead of an emotional one and say "I'm gonna spend more on less because it'll save me headaches in the future." Instead, they rationalize that the bad stuff "won't be so bad."
So if you need complexity to make the sell and if that very complexity negatively impacts consumer satisfaction afterward, we got ourselves a nice little conundrum.
How to manage complexity effectively?
BJ Fogg (2009) showed that behavior occurs as a consequence of 3 components coming together at the right time:
- Motivation (how badly do I want to do this right now?)
- Ability (how easy is it to do it?)
- Prompt (something that nudges you to act now.)
When we're thinking about consumers (or users) making a purchasing decision we should look at these things.
How easy do we make it for them to take action (ability)? We can break this down into 8 sub-categories:
Money, time, physical effort, mental effort, social deviance, non-routine, location in time, and location in space.
By thinking about these components strategically, we can make the purchasing decision as easy as possible.
But to a large extent, purchases are a function of motivation. How badly do they wanna buy it? If they want it super badly (motivation is high), they'll deal with hurdles themselves. (Look at Amazon's shitty UI for example.)
In order to get motivation high, you need to think about The Job To Be Done (Christensen, Anthony, Berstell & Nitterhouse, 2007) and Acute Satisfaction.
An employer hires an employee to solve for a particular problem or job. A consumer hires a product to do the same thing. Understanding the JTBD makes sure that your simplification isn't akin to building a car with 1 wheel and no steering wheel. It makes sure that you deliver the right features to your consumers or users.
Acute Satisfaction refers to the amount of pleasure a consumer is getting in the moment from buying your product. I.e. Cool shit.
AS is what people complain about post-purchase. E.g. Macbook's touch bar or butterfly mechanism. Consumers want new. Consumers want more. Consumers want maximization.
There's a reason why minimalism is a movement and maximalism isn't. It's because human beings have a natural inclination toward increasing entropy. Being satisfied with less is learned behavior that takes effort. The accumulation of more shit does not.
But it's important to take a long-term perspective. There's too much focus on short-term optimization right now. Be it internal pressure from founders or external pressure from investors. If you take a long-term and short-term perspective (bothism, see Ritson, 2020) then you'll not only take short-term optimization into account but also longevity. This makes sure NPS, brand perception, churn, CAC, and LTV are managed properly vs. being hurt as a consequence of a quick win. Which is exactly the mistake most companies make nowadays.
For a more in-depth explanation on the thesis laid out here, you can read this essay: LINK IN COMMENTS
I hope this has been both enlightening and enjoyable.
Have a good one.
RJ Youngling
