Having someone say “That’s so simple even I, not knowing anything, could have done it. Why are you paid so much for that?” is the best kind of compliment.
It’s likely you’ve been in that situation where you think that a certain thing is easy (though not using the words above), only to find the situation way more complex once you give it a try.
The aforementioned situation happens a lot with logos but whatever you do, if you’ve got experience in your field, will be understandable. If you’re a programmer, someone can see clean code and say it’s so easy to write code.
If you’re curating a clothing collection, at the end you’re left without the “junk” (for the lack of a better word).
Even if you’re inventing a new mathematical theorem, you’re left at the end with something way simpler than the mess of ideas and concepts you’ve put together.
The bottom line?
There are two conclusions.
1. It’s against human tendency
Simplicity only comes through eliminating a lot and we know that in theory. But the practical hard is that it’s very hard to let go. To drop all these things that will lead us to ending with something simple.
So go against your human tendency. The Uber idea sounded simple when it was first told to you. Instagram as well.
2. We should stop getting offended
Offended by “My 4 year old could have done this”. You know how much you’ve worked for ending up with that very polished product. The person saying those words doesn’t.
And chances are, the person saying that will never know. So go reduce stuff out of your product/concept/idea that can be reduced.
About Ch Daniel
I run Chagency_, an experiences design agency — we help SaaS CEOs reduce user churn. I write daily on this topic and in similar areas. Here are my best pieces.
If I’ve helped you, follow me here and reach out: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email | Quora | YouTube
I’ve also founded an app that went 0-200K users in its 1st year — chdaniel.com/app
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Illustration credits: Pavel Fuksa
