Why it matters

What this principle is for.

Textbook solutions will not get you there. Sometimes the problem has no parallel. Sometimes last year's solution will not scale. Invention imagines a future that is markedly different, then figures out how to get there. Innovation blows apart the constraints that make today's process behave the way it does.

Invention without Simplify is decoration. Teams add features to a thing that is already too hard to use. They keep a step because "that is how we have always done it." Simplifying an existing process often frees more time than a new feature ever will.

The work is disruptive. If you champion a new idea, expect resistance. Push it forward without listening and you erode Earn Trust, and you may miss the fact that would make the idea better. You need Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit when the scrutiny comes. Run a pilot. Measure whether the idea actually delivers. Say out loud what you are worried about.

If a good solution already exists, inventing your own is usually vanity. If the off-the-shelf thing will not scale, say why, with evidence. Keep a critical eye. Do not reject a solution just because you did not write it.

Inventing well means being stubborn and flexible at the same time. Stubborn, or you quit the experiment too soon. Flexible, or you pound the wall and miss the other solution.

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

Look for a simpler path that still solved the customer problem. "We added a feature" is not this principle. Neither is rewriting a working system so someone could feel clever. Look for experiments, pilots, and a willingness to use someone else's idea.

SituationUnderJust RightOver

Examples

What it looks like in the work.

The whiteboard in the corner

The room is staring at a chart of arrows. Someone walks to the board, crosses out half of it, and the whole thing fits in a corner. People say it cannot be that easy. Look for the person who did that, and also whether they checked the failure cases with the people who run the process. Simplifying in private and throwing the result over the wall is the over move.

Pilot it

A big invention that can only be tested after three years and a giant spend will not get many cycles. Find a team willing to try it, or a slice of the audience. Measure whether it delivers. Be vocal about what you are worried about. Partner with the loudest critic. If you cannot say how the change helps the customer, you are not ready to invent it.

Not invented here

A good solution already exists on another team, or outside the company. Building your own feels like invention and is usually waste. The other failure is the reverse: rejecting the external thing because it was not born here. Look for the person who can say what they reused, what they refused, and the evidence for both.

In the role

Individual and manager.

Individual

You notice when you are solving the same problem for the third time. You ask what you could remove. You look outside your team before you write a new system. You can explain the customer problem in a sentence, then show the simpler path.

Manager

You require invention and you require simplicity. You fund small experiments and kill the ones that do not move a customer metric. You do not let "not invented here" become a team sport, and you do not let elegance eat the goal.

Go deeper

Questions that make the principle concrete.

  1. When did you last recognize that last year's solution was no longer scaling?
  2. What experiment did you run to lower the cost of being wrong?
  3. What did you remove from a process, and how did you know the customer problem was still solved?
  4. Where did the idea come from if it was not invented on your team?
  5. What would the process look like if you had a tenth of the time, or ten times the traffic?
  6. When is the last time you set aside delivery work to look at the bigger picture?
  7. Which part of the current process takes the most time, and what happens if you remove it?
  8. Are you stuck re-implementing the same fix, or did you change the system underneath?
  9. How do you reward invention on your team without rewarding novelty for its own sake?
  10. What criticism of your idea was right, and what did you change because of it?

From the blog

Writing that goes deeper.

Related

Principles that sit next to this one.

  • Customer Obsession

    Invent on behalf of a customer. Invention with no customer is a hobby.

  • Think Big

    Think Big sets the destination. Invent and Simplify is the non-obvious path that gets you there.

  • Learn and Be Curious

    Curiosity is how you notice the constraint that can be blown apart.

  • Frugality

    Constraints force simpler designs. Extra headcount is often how teams avoid inventing.

  • Earn Trust

    Champions who will not listen while they invent lose the room, and often the better idea.

  • Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

    A new idea will get scrutiny. You need backbone to keep it alive, and you need to commit when the call goes the other way.