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We know, intuitively, that simpler is better.
Simpler makes money.
It’s a notion that’s proven out, over and over again—Apple’s iPhone, Nike’s “Just do it” campaign, or Google search. Yet humans have a knack for making things complex. Complex doesn’t help. It hurts products, communication, processes, and productivity—the fundamental stuff of business.
Complexity spreads over time like rust on a machine, and we put up with it.
Our default setting is to get used to the rust, rarely recognizing things could be simpler or easier until something better comes along.
Not the containers a software engineer might talk about.
Shipping containers.
We all benefit from this radically simple idea: a steel box, loaded with goods, instantly transportable around the world.
BC—Before Containers, shipping was incredibly expensive.
Stevedores and longshoremen would load goods—from apples to zucchini—manually, item by item, stacking and securing each piece. Then American Malcolm McLean came along with a simple idea. Load the apples and zucchini into a box, then load the box onto the boat. Containerization.
Mclean put the box into practice in 1956. The idea was obvious; putting loose cargo in a container would reduce loading costs per tonne by a whopping 72%.
The knock-on effects of this radically simple idea drove globalization and the world’s economy. Containers could be efficiently stacked, allowing more and more goods to be transported across the seas. Labor costs dropped dramatically and since containers were sealed, theft declined.
That’s what radically simple can do. It’s a transformative superpower.
Radical simplicity doesn’t just ease workflow, it eliminates work. It isn’t just clean design, it’s clean process. It isn’t just clear communication, it’s decisive action.
All around us, we see the benefit of radically simple—the Amazon one-click button transformed the way we shop, and autonomous vehicles will change the way we drive.
Radical simplicity is a pursuit, an obsession, an idea. It’s an idea that you can put into practice by taking up six simple rules.
#1. Prioritize the essential.
#2. Maintain clarity.
#3. Reduce options.
#4. Adapt and refine. Then do it again.
#5. Embrace constraints.
#6. Hide complexity.
The clash of competing demands, the other FOMO (fear of missing opportunities), and the relentless pressure to respond to the urgent over the important make prioritization a moving target. The result: long spreadsheets of to-do lists; that have a habit of spawning and multiplying.
Decision-making tools like an Eisenhower Matrix are useful here, but the key leadership trait is courage. Strategy is sacrifice. The choice to do one thing and do it well. Lifting performance on a team comes from a focus on the vital few, not the overwhelming many. And any prioritization is often mired in the technical—a logical rationale to do this first, followed by that.
Take the launch of a new product, for example, which comes with teething problems and a long list of break-fix items. The urge is to prioritize the next great feature over product stabilization, which is often a mistake. It ignores the political reality—the optics of an imperfect launch, affecting reputation and morale.
Tip: Transparently communicate priorities to your teams, explaining the why. Anchor back to your OKRs and mission.
Complexity creeps in with the curse of knowledge. To us, it’s simple. To someone else, not so much. We fall victim to the innocuous use of jargon, over-reliance on detail, and the victory of platitudes and vagueness over the clear and concrete.
Clarity comes from empathy—understanding what people are facing, what they are doing, what they know, and what they don’t know. This awareness can help you simplify processes, simplify communication, and simplify products.
Take, for example, the rollout of a company strategy or a strategy update. It’s tempting to share the forty-page deck, in an effort to be transparent, or key slides from that deck, if you’re going for brevity. Neither, usually, is fit for purpose. The whole deck is too in the weeds, and the key slides usually need more context. On the surface, it feels like more work, but translating the strategy, building a strategic narrative, and making it clear and concrete not only makes it simple, it has the desired result of communicating the strategy in the first place—getting people to execute the strategy.
Tip: Work to make your next communication clear and concrete.
You’ve been to a restaurant with a big menu. The sheer volume of choice is overwhelming—and you, or someone you know, take a long time choosing what to eat. This is The Paradox of Choice, popularized by psychologist Barry Schwartz in his book of the same name. Schwartz illustrates this through a jam experiment. In a grocery store, psychologists studied two different displays. One had 24 varieties of jam; on another day, a similar table had 6 varieties. The unexpected result? the larger display drew more customers but sold less jam.
Information overload in preserves. A flood of choice and unnecessary detail that can be reduced in products through careful design, removed in processes by experimentation and iteration, and with practice, distilled in your communication.
Tip: Distill what you have to three. Three points, three ideas, three actions.
Your first thought may seem simple, but it’s often not your best one. More likely, it’s half-baked or quarter-thought-out. Most ideas need time, testing, and refinement to reach their full potential. Walking them around, explaining them, and letting others try them on for size rubs off the rough edges and allows you to to hone in on what’s truly important.
This friction—feedback, input, and testing—can steer you in one of two directions: addition, which often introduces complexity, or subtraction, the path to radical simplicity. Engineering Professor Leidy Klotz, in his book, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, points to an underused simplification strategy—subtraction.
Subtraction simplifies by removing the non-essential, clearing the clutter, and focusing on what truly matters. To reach radical simplicity, subtraction—not addition or feature creep— must be the lens through which feedback, input, and testing are evaluated. Each round of feedback presents a choice: do we add more, or do we refine by taking something away?
Tip: Ask, “What can we remove?” What is not essential?” This keeps the focus on clarifying and streamlining rather than adding.
Constraints unleash creativity. That creativity often builds businesses.
IKEA’s flat-pack furniture business emerged from the constraint of high shipping and storage costs. Add a little Swedish design ingenuity and a global brand is born. Toyota developed lean manufacturing with the Toyota Production System, spurred by post-World War II resource constraints in Japan. In the early days of the Internet, faced with dial-up modems and slow load times, Google developed a radically simple search page—a box and a button—while competitors cluttered their user interfaces.
Constraints are not barriers; they’re guides. Prioritizing the essential clarifies the outcome. Identifying constraints and setting boundaries is then a practical approach to tackling problems. Rather than think, “What can we build?” think, “What can we build with this budget?” Rather than estimate how long it will take, timebox your efforts. Instead of asking, “What if?” ask, “What’s next?”
Tip: Hold a “subtraction session” before launch. Periodically gather your team to as what can be simplified, removed, or reworked to better fit within your constraints.
Complexity isn’t the villain—it’s runaway complexity. Foisting your process on someone else. Unnecessary steps. Needless complication. Making people think too hard, wait too long, or put in extra effort when they shouldn’t have to. Radical simplicity solves that; essential complexity stays out of sight.
This allows us (the user, the stakeholder, audience, or recipient) to focus on what we need without unnecessary details. This is where great products, streamlined processes, and clear communication shine.
Tesla’s Over-the-Air updates are a model of radical simplicity in action. Behind the scenes, Tesla engineers work with intricate software and vehicle systems, yet for the driver, updates are as simple as a notification and a one-click install. This hides the complex mechanics of automotive improvement, creating a seamless experience where a driver never has to visit a service center.
Amazon’s warehouse and supply chain complexity is hidden from the consumer by a “Buy Now” button. Mastercard and Visa hide the intricate four-sided market and web of institutions, transactions, and processing that allows you to “tap to pay.”
Needless complexity has a limited lifespan. Trips to the video store are displaced by DVD rentals and, eventually, streaming. Blackberries are wonderful until something better, simpler, and more Apple-like comes along. The disruptors—Airbnb, Uber, Southwest Airlines, Netflix, Khan Academy, and others come along with a radically different, radically simple product, process, or message and change the world.
Tip: Make crushing complexity a pursuit. Don’t put up with the rust. Chase away extra steps or unnecessary detail in all corners of your work.
Gavin McMahon is a founder and Chief Content Officer for fassforward consulting group. He leads Learning Design and Product development across fassforward’s range of services. This crosses diverse topics, including Leadership, Culture, Decision-making, Information design, Storytelling, and Customer Experience. He is also a contributor to Forbes Business Council.
Eugene Yoon is a graphic designer and illustrator at fassforward. She is a crafter of Visual Logic. Eugene is multifaceted and works on various types of projects, including but not limited to product design, UX and web design, data visualization, print design, advertising, and presentation design.
