February 11, 2013

The Complexity of being Simple!


Hi Guys,

Many people say that ‘Being Simple is the most difficult thing in Life’. In the past few days, I have come across people saying that it is difficult for products too.

We are living in an era where Technology advances each day and at the end of the day, it is difficult for the user to assimilate all the advancements in his mind.

Last week, I had the privilege of listening to Mr. Alok Goel, who is currently the Chief Product Officer of Redbus. He was giving a speech on Disruptive Innovation. He was saying that in a world filled with complexities, being simple is a disruptive innovation. He was saying about Google Docs. In 2005, when Google Docs was introduced, Microsoft never considered it as a Competitor. Microsoft continued to upgrade its Office Software. It added more and more features and made it difficult for people to understand the features. An average user uses only 5-10% of the features. In the same phase, Google continued to improve its Docs and the main advantage of Docs is that it is simple and easy to use. It has the necessary features alone. So more and more people have started using Docs.

Today, I was reading the book ‘Five Future Strategies you need right now’ written by George Stalk of BCG. One of the five strategies was dealing with Complexities. The author says that though being simple is said to be the best thing, people love Complexities. Whenever we buy things, particularly electronic goods we make sure that the products have all the features. The author goes on to say that companies that provide Complex stuffs in a simple manner go on to win. The best example is Dell Online Store, where each and every step is explained and you are fully aware of what you are doing.

A few days before I came across a phrase in Facebook which said ‘Today we have Smart Phones and Stupid People’. I feel that the Complexity is the main reason behind this. Thought there are lot of features in Smart Phone, not all people want all features. But when they are buying the phone, they would ensure that the phone has all the features.

I feel that today people are psychologically compelled to buy Complex Products, though they are more comfortable using simple products. They just do not want to admit to the world that they can’t use Complex Products. Being simple is too Complex, isn’t it?

Happy Reading!!!

3 comments:

  1. I agree! Life has become too complex with simplicity going out of fashion with each passing day. Loved the quote, smart phones and stupid people. Indeed when we buy something new we want all features even though we are clueless about how to use them.

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  2. Simplicity, a vanishing trend of our generation . Agree with Arti and you ,when we buy something new we want all features even though we are clueless about how to use them , even if we have clue we are quite lazy to use it .

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  3. very intersting article nice presentation

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