Make space for simplifying.

The goal is to make the user a better version of themselves.

As a product designer, I strived to challenge myself in the problem-defining process on two questions:

What is the main thing that users care about currently? 

Who is the user you are designing for?

As I am typing down this article, the main thing that I care about most in Google Blogger is writing down my thoughts and making my points clear to my viewers. As an example of simplification of Google Blogger editing experience, typing with less hassle is the product designer's goal.

You might think, oh yea, it is straight-forward enough, cut all features that "distract" a user from editing, and give them focus. From a perspective of a product designer who had four years of experience, I'd remind you that one thing that always gets in your way is the persuasion process. I mean, let's face the fact:

Reduction is much difficult than starting from Scratch.

You must not be surprised if you had been in a company for long. People who had been working for long and had seen the product for long, those are the ones who I might call: conservatives. They usually could lose the sensitivity and had a love for the product given how much effort and time they had put in. The less thing they want to realize is: the simpler the design (easy built), the more effective it could be (good result). So given that situation, you will have two barriers to face in your persuading process for a simplified experience:

Your first barrier would be: why is focusing users on tasks they care about most about at the moment would lift the business goal comparing with leaving all feature available to a user. That could be, depending on how user-focus your company is, a short or long convincing process. But you just need to go through that and build consensus.

Your second barrier would depend on how much effort you had put into knowing your users.

How confident are you when proposing a simplified version of your product?

This question relates directly to this next question: "How much do you understand the behavior of a user in the current state?"

Going back to the example of Google Blogger, how much confidence you have regarding which are the main editing features that a user utilizes when editing? What is their moment of intention (ex. drafting or fine-tunning)? And maybe what is the main platform that they use the Google Blogger. 

There are a couple levels of confidence for your simplifying proposal, and the more you understand your users, the more power you have on the discussion table with your stakeholders. (People who manage the projects, who manage the budget, and who full deep love in the current product - the conservatives.)

Usually at the beginning of the design process, without sufficient help from your researcher peer, it is a hard call scaling from [It is a necessity] to [It is a nice to have]. But you got to do the homework.

So! Solution 1: do the prep work

Gather the information you had synthesized from your past data tracking that we could start the conversation. Make a case and build a valid user story. Make your user the only source of truth. I would also admit this the superpower of a product user - emphasizing, and the main reason why I think it is a necessity that a design has some knowledge on user research.

Solution 2: People management

Take steps and time to talk to all the related stakeholders. Win the trust. Say your belief. The more ally you got, the lesser barriers you'll have.

Conclusion

Simplifying the product experience seems to be a best practice, but you could also face barriers to the mission. Do your homework, know your users, and strengthen your confidence. I mean, if there were a good lesson overall, acknowledging that what takes time in a product design isn't product design itself is a really good start for you already. So don't rush, and think strategically.