Everything should be made
as simple as possible, but not simpler.
- Buzz was tested with 20,000 Google employees and still launched with a feature that generated loads of complaints until the feature was dropped. It ran smoothly with tons of employees, but they weren’t the real users.
- Originally marketed as a disposable face towel to remove make-up, the manufacturer found out 2 years later that the majority of people were using Kleenex to blow their noses. They started advertising it as a handkerchief, which doubled their sales figures.
- The iDrive control system started with a minimal approach – the only control was a turn knob. Later on, due to extensive consumer feedback, 2 extra buttons were added. Now, it features 8 dedicated buttons, greatly improving the user experience and driving safety.
- Target bought Amazon’s customer review software. In the first month after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, Amazon got 1805 reviews, whereas Target received only 3. Both retailers sold about 2 million copies.
- The small change of allowing people to skip sign-up during checkout resulted in $300 million extra revenue per year.
- Walmart decluttered their aisles, which improved customer satisfaction but reduced inventory by 15%. It cost Walmart $1.85 billion to listen to what their customers said, instead of what they actually did.
- Netflix tried to cut a function that was confusing and useless, but users strongly objected. They kept the feature.