Keep it stupid simple

I, and I think many of us, are often convinced that the best ways to do things is the most extravagant. We want the biggest house. We want…

Keep it stupid simpleI, and I think many of us, are often convinced that the best ways to do things is the most extravagant. We want the biggest house. We want…


I, and I think many of us, are often convinced that the best ways to do things is the most extravagant. We want the biggest house. We want the fastest car. We want the most things.

This is the American way, right?

When it comes to building projects or starting a company, we have to completely 180 that mindset and think about stripping everything besides our core assumption out of the way.

I have said it before: we have to build an unbiased experiment with the sole mission of testing an assumption.

The details of said experiment are deceivingly simple. We must find a unique, low-cost (time and money) way to test an assumption about how we think users will respond to a certain product or feature.

I think lots of people, me included, make a mistake during this part of the process. They build something pretty. They build something they care about.

Anyone will sign up for something pretty. That not testing your core assumption.That is testing whether or not people like your landing page.

It may be best to have a page with no real design that literally only tests whether or not your assumption is true. Any other factors, including your personal bias, design of your website, or survey bias, will all mess up the results.

Keep it simple. Stupid simple.

Think like Wile e Coyote. Simple.


Originally published at gonen.blog.

Tagged in Startup

By jordangonen on July 4, 2017.

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Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.