Do things just for 80% and say NO often

It is a long time ago when I read a book from Jack Welch but I still remember one thing from there, which I quite like. He said „do things just for 80% because nobody really wants perfection and nobody is prepared to pay for it“ and I think it is really true. But every time I say it everybody is surprised and asked me if I really think it is true and if I don’t like finishing stuff and so on. And every time I think about it and realize that I like finished (and finishing) stuff but I still think it is true.

Today I read another article which is somehow relevant. It was from Derek Sivers from 37signals who said „build half a product, not a half-ass product“ and he also mentioned Steve Jobs who gave a small private presentation about the iTunes Music Store and said „It’s about saying NO to all but the most crucial features“.

These two together makes sense for me. It is just hard to persuade most customers about it but after all it is good for them as well – the final products are cheaper, quicker, easy to learn and not so complex. Which means that it probably doesn’t have all those features all products around has, but it does all they need and that’s the most important thing for me.

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