Subtraction by Addition

Subtraction by addition is making the thing you manufacture less appealing to your customers by adding more and more features. Features that they do not value and that may subtract from the original purpose of your mission.

It doesn’t have to be a thing. And you don’t have to be manufacturing it. It can be a concept, an idea, a service, etc.

Two examples.

First, I have some software I use. In the past it work well, but not so much anymore.

Second, Pam has a new truck. It has lots of buttons and switches. Her truck does things we don’t want it to do. So we are trying to figure out which switches to use to turn off some of these features that some person at the auto company thought people might want… but don’t.

I’ll expand on both of those illustrations, but first let me give you some background.

A lot of my work career was in marketing. I read on the subject as much as I could. The guru of marketing at that time was Michel Porter. In one of his books he put forth the idea that you needed to focus on your mission. You needed goals to help you get there. During a given day or week whatever you did needed to be in alignment with those goals. If you did anything else you were going the wrong direction and detracting from you mission.

I found later as I managed businesses that this was true. People at work will invent things for themselves to do. Not bad things. Sometimes they were good. Sometimes they were really good, but if they didn’t push the team toward the goals and the mission then it was wasted effort… which is wasted money. A big part of my job was to travel around and make sure we were all pulling the same direction and “coach” people and encouraged them to stay “on the beam”.

One time I had the job of integrating an acquisition into our company. The R&D division of the acquired company had a fantastic product that they had invented. One of their departments was very good and a chemical niche. They had invented a product that was very unique. They had only a general idea of what to do with the technology. This story is now decades old. The only application we could come up with for it was “medical”. We sold the technology, because we had no way to market it. So it was a really good idea, but it did not advance the mission of the group.

By the way, I now have this medical product in my house. It is pretty common now especially if you have chronic aches and pains.

Later in life I was introduced to a book called “Essentialism”. I was no longer in charge of anyone but myself. The book was great and I recommend it to you. The essence of the book is: “Do one thing and do it well”. Don’t do many things average. Do one thing. Become very proficient at it. 

We are not built to be “multitaskers”. No matter what people may think about themselves they do not multitask. Instead they are “rapid shifters”. They work on one thing and then quickly shift to another. Is that good? Is being a multitasker or “rapid shifter” good. I don’t know. My encouragement would be don’t let that get in your way of always moving toward the goal and the mission.

Back to the illustrations…

The software I referenced above was for file sharing. It worked fine and was convenient and useful. Then they started adding. And adding. Now it is difficult to even sign into the on-line website because they added 2 step verification. That was fine. Then they added passkeys. Now they want me to scan a QR code with my phone each time and this results in an error. My password management software doesn’t know what to do. The software now asks for passkeys that don’t exist and I have to jump through hoops to sign in.

I have to be careful how I send a link to someone. The link must have directions assigned to it otherwise the person receiving the link has to buy their own subscription to see the files you send them.

It has become too complicated.

Today I stripped out all the fancy security sign in protocols and went back to a simple sign in and two step verification.

So in the place of that software now are new upstarts are appearing that are clean, straightforward and simple.

These new alternatives are focused on a mission and they are clear eyed about what the customer wants and they are delivering to that need… at least so far.

Regarding Pam’s truck…

It has a “lane assist” feature. No that isn’t exactly correct. It has lane assist features. Plural. If you wander out of your lane the steering wheel shakes. An alter is on the dash. It even tries to move you back to your lane. Large repairs in the road confuse it. Other things confuse it and there are multiple alternatives to the feature. So it does things we don’t want and I can’t imagine that anyone would want.

It is almost a self driving vehicle, without being a self driving vehicle. So it is really stuck in “no man’s land” in that respect.

So we have figure out how to turn all the features off.

There are lots of features on this vehicle. I’m sure we paid for all of them. Many we want. Many we don’t. 

This model comes in about three “trim models”. We bought it used, but it appears that you buy the trim model and you get what is in that package… whether you value everything there or not.

People want reliable transportation. They want it to be comfortable. Then they have a “want list” of “hierarchy of needs”. Some of these they would sacrifice just to have things simplified.

Our new vehicle has the option of satellite radio, blue tooth for music from your phone, AM, FM, and some other things pop up on that screen and we have’t taken the time to figure them out. Right now we are trying to get two phones to connect. We have one connected, but not two. So all the other options will wait.

Do not get caught up in activity and forget the goal of that activity. 

Keep it simple in concept. In can be complex in the details, but simple in concept. Going to the moon is a simple concept. The details to execute that are complex. They call it “a mission to the moon” because the emphasis is on the mission… not the detail.

Do one thing and do it well. Don’t overwhelm that one thing you are doing with so many features and options that you lose track of the purpose for which it was intended.

Notes:

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown