Remember the Alamo, er 37signals That Is

In 2004 when I started Leads360, there was a soon to be very well known software startup that was making a lot of noise with a downloadable eBook about the future of software development. In it, 37signals touted the keys to successful on-demand software. It was great timing because we were in the early stages of our 1^st development cycle on the Lead Manager and we really took to heart some of the concepts. The most significant was the idea of less is more. These guys said keep it simple, features make things worse, not better. Somewhere along the line we started to veer away from this thinking. I wouldn’t say we’re over the top bloated compare us with the CRM solution we use, Right Now Technologies, and you’ll see the spectrum of complexity is very large. Still we’ve learned a lot about what clients want, how to service them and how to run a lean organization. We recently re-tooled our entire product line and released products that were “less” than our flagship software.

So when I read a recent post on Harvard Business Blog (again, this blog is amazing) about 37signals I was reminded of the importance. The 37signals guys had a new spin on the idea that less is more, they said “less is less” and that’s what you want. I love that. Why does more always have to mean better. I’m as big of an offender as anyone on this subject. They go on to explain how they don’t just build software under this premise, they run their entire organization that way. Don’t hire more people to get more done, just do less. Don’t work more hours to grow faster, just grow slower. That isn’t to say they aren’t interested in making money, they just focus on profit rather than growth. It’s certainly refreshing to hear and rings an all too true bell for this guy.