FOCUS on KISS
When I joined Rocketium it took me a while to wrap my head around what are we doing & what problem are we solving, are these problems even worth solving?
HOT TAKE ? Naah !
As a startup SPEED is everything — there are lots of work behind the scene, which doesn’t make sense in the moment specially for functions like Customer Success, Sales & Marketing i.e why cross functional collaboration is very crucial element of the process specially with product & engineering because each day the team is working on mission critical project and crunching bugs + shipping features, but amidst of the hustle thinking about strategy and staying connected to the core vision are key of startup success.
I realised the single most impactful and time saving thing we could do was to stop designing for our users and align on where we wanted the product to be in the future. Let me explain.
When designing/building products or features, First principle matters —
Keep it stupid simple & Long Term Thinking.
KISS : (Keep it stupid simple)
This term was first coined by Kelly Johnson used in the US Navy, who was the lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works. Johnson told the designers at Lockheed that — designs should be simple enough to be repaired by a man in a combat situation with only some basic mechanic’s training and very few tools. If the products weren’t simple and easy to understand, they would not only cost lives but also quickly become obsolete in combat conditions and thus worthless.
Side Note* Our Group Chat Conversation.
Me: I always ask, I hope it works & does it makes sense?
Nafees: Wink and said “KISS it” — it works. HAHA!
In the world of user experience, the KISS principle resembles the idea of ease — as the end user will always resist the change if the learning curve is high it is hard to build the user stickiness and this resistance often results in complex design and a bad user experience.
Long Term Thinking :
When designing features/products, it’s very important to focus on “power-users & customers.” apart from this, everything else is a distraction.
At a startup, it’s easy to get distracted by outside noise and forget your “WHY?”. Stay focused.
Don’t build anything for the average user without considering long-term goals of the overall product, i’ve often seen teams shipping something just because the user wanted ends up adding chaos to the product.
Existing users are the story of now and not necessarily where the product will be in the coming years.
Startups frequently experiment with lots of ideas, designs & features by neglecting the discussions about an ideal future. This tendency leads to cross-functional misalignment, resulting in a messy situation.
Regardless of how impressive a product or feature may be, it often ends up in Gartner’s quadrant as— Niche Players (i.e lack of ability to execute.)
At Rocketium we are super focused — we not only think about users, but also carefully choose/select the set of users of what I call “USHER.”
When crafting features and products tailored for these kinds of users, the team secures a higher chance of winning, creating a cohesive relationship that ensures meaningful outcomes. This user-centric approach not only enhances the product experience but also cultivates a more engaging and seamless user journey.
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