It’s easier to add complexity to any one plan, the real art is to say no to a thousand decent ideas and focus on creating the one best thing.

I find myself planning massive changes to our system, making massive plans for my new closet organization schema, but then have a hard time making those massive plans become a reality. We all do this. The reason is that when we plan complex systems we get easily overwhelmed with how to achieve them. If we started with the very Minimal Viable Product we would be able to not only achieve it in record time but also have an easier time doing it. The beauty of starting with a simple system is that you get to find out what is truly missing (the essentials) right away. So the second iteration you do can resolve all of these issues.

The iPhone to me is the best example of this. It was launched with a very minimal viable set of features and within a year they added all the things humanity demanded of them (or at least the ones we found important).

So the next time you feel somewhat overwhelmed with something you are planning, there are too many connections to keep in your mind, it’s time to step back. Look at what is an absolutely must and scrap everything else for the initial release.