Pillar 06
Simple over Complete
"Every feature has a cost"
Every feature you add is a feature you maintain forever.
The best products aren’t the ones with the most features. They’re the ones that do a few things exceptionally well. Simplicity is itself a feature — often the most valuable one.
What This Means in Practice
- Default to “no” for new features
- Consider maintenance cost, not just build cost
- Remove before adding
- Measure success by problems solved, not features shipped
Common Traps
- Adding features because competitors have them
- Saying “yes” to avoid difficult conversations
- Building for edge cases before nailing the core
- Measuring productivity by feature count
Remember
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Simple is hard. Simple is worth it.
Put this pillar into practice
The Pragmatic PM Toolkit includes templates built on these principles.