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Here’s an oldie but a goodie, and certainly even more relevant today than it was over 2 years ago when I first posted it. The benefits of simple solutions, reduced complexity, and eliminating unnecessary choices are starting to sink into our product development culture.
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We have 3 different types of food blenders in our house. They are pictured below. I’ve tried to show them roughly to scale with one another.
The first is a “traditional” blender with a base, a large 56 oz. (1.75 L) pitcher-style container and several speed settings for the blades.
The second is an immersion blender with a number of attachments for mixing, blending, chopping etc.
The third is known as the Magic Bullet blender. It has a small 16 oz. (.45 L) container for the contents being blended and a simple on/off mechanism for the blades.
While they all have benefits and are clearly different, guess which one gets the most use in our household? Given the title of this post, it should be pretty obvious.
Yes, it’s blender #3, the Magic Bullet. And why?
Simplicity in all aspects of usage. Most blending jobs are very simple quick tasks. e.g. making a smoothie, or blending some sauce or something similar. The usage scenario goes something like this:
- Place the contents to be blended into the blending container
- Blend for 10-15 seconds (maybe 20 seconds in extreme cases)
- Pour the contents out of the container
There’s not much more than that. In *most* cases, the amounts are small (< 16 oz) so I don’t need the large blender which is both heavy and a bit of pain to clean. Also the immersion blender is pretty good for a lot of tasks, but I find it inefficient unless I truly have to immerse it into a pot or other container for “in place” blending.
In short, for the majority of my blending tasks, the Magic Bullet addresses the needs well. There is a lesson here for software and technology PMs, and I think you know what that is:
A simple solution that addresses a use case well is likely to be used often by your target audience.
Of course, most technology products do a lot more than a blender, but that doesn’t mean they have to be complex to use.
Saeed
NOTE: 2 years later, I still use the Magic Bullet regularly. I can’t remember the last time I used either the large blender or the immersion blender.
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