For Good Products, Subtraction Matters Far More Than Addition

Suppose you want to open a restaurant and outperform the place next door. You decide to compete by offering every category of food, an enormous menu, and something for everyone. Often, more than 90% of the dishes go unordered. In the end, you may not even do the few signature dishes on the menu well. Many startup teams make the same mistake with products. They try to cover everything and build an all-encompassing product or solution. The result is a jumble: it appears to meet many needs, but examined individually, none of its features is competitive. An all-encompassing product often leads to slow performance and a poor user experience. Users search endlessly for the function they need, then wait too long for it to run. Eventually, the product the team worked so hard to create is abandoned. For good products, subtraction matters far more than addition. You must clearly pare the product down to the functions users need most urgently, rather than frantically adding features because you lack confidence and do not understand the situation.