First make it work simply, then make it work better
Finally you’ve got the time and commitment from everyone. At last you can fix all the annoying stuff and make what you always wanted. We’ve got it all planned out. It’s got everything. It’s going to be amazing.
Just don’t try to be too amazing all at once.
Of course you want this new project to be successful. And it makes sense that it will be most successful if it’s got all of the good ideas in it. But, unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
I’m mostly talking about technology projects here, but it’s true for other stuff as well.
One way to think of it is that on some level, every part of a project is related to every other part. So the more parts you have, the more connections you’re creating.
Two parts means one connection. Cool, nice and easy.
Three parts gives you three connections. Not too bad.
When you’ve got four parts, things start to expand. Now you’ve got six connections.
Add just one more thing and you end up with 120 connections. That’s a big jump.
Just adding that one part suddenly gives you 114 more things that could go wrong. That’s a nightmare. (Just for fun, six parts gives 720 connections, and it really gets ridiculous.)
Counting connections isn’t exactly what John Gall was talking about when he came up with what is now known as Gall’s Law. But I think it’s a nice way to picture it.
Gall’s Law says:
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.
John Gall (1975)
So if you’re doing it for the first time, it’s got to be simple. Better to be simple but rock solid, than be fancy and not sure. Fancy means loose ends, which is fine if everything goes perfectly. But if it doesn’t (and it never does) then you’ll be spending all your time chasing those loose ends, patching up the gaps.
The other advantage of simple is that you can probably finish and ship it sooner. Which means you get feedback sooner and you’re onto version two.
One thing to remember though, is that simple is not boring or useless. It’s got to provide value. The trick is to figure out what is the simplest way to solve the problem, then stop. That’s it. Just do that, then go. Anything after that is either decoration or noise or trouble.
When you’ve got something that only does the bare minimum and people still want to buy it, then you know you’re on the right track. Then you can start the work of making it better.
