Simplifying the Complex

Whether it is marketing or development, you gotta admit that tech companies and their teams struggle to simplify the experience and the message for their customers. Why is it that our DNA tells us that more is better?

Take the Chumby, for example. Ever heard of it? We heard about it over lunch with a PR maven back in the spring, but it never hit the radar until the other day. What is a Chumby? (We know you're dying to know!) New York Times technology editor, David Pogue, described it best. In his words, the Chumby = Alarm clock + Radio + Wi-Fi Internet + Digital picture frame + Gaming Console + Email terminal + Video player.

Business Week just published their 2008 Best and Worst. As suckers for such lists, we scanned the list and, lo and behold, the Chumby is sited as 2008's Most Disappointing Product. Ouch! Not a chummy report on the Chumby. In short, the review cited that the Chumby fell short on the user experience, calling the Chumby hard to use, with primitive technology and missing capabilities, like a battery, with a high price tag of $180.

Think about it: Does the target Chumby customer really need all those bells and whistles? And an Internet connection with a clock radio? Yet one more separate device to capture news? And Music? And email? Check out the website: It doesn't say, in any simple way, why the Chumby should my next device. Despite the fact that people like the tactile feel of the thing, the product it seems, and its marketing, are too complex. Simply put: Does the world really need a better alarm clock?

HELLO! It isn't about features. This is just one example of overly complex technology that falls short on delivering a compelling user experience. And after two years ion the market, the Chumby is now at the mercy of a tough economy.

Ever heard of MusicNet? We hadn't either. But if features were the ultimate win, then MusicNet, a 2002 online digital music service backed by several record labels, would have blazed the market and won instead of iTunes. However, even with all kinds of features and a low price: $10 a month for 100 streamed songs and 100 downloads. The experience fell short, considering downloaded songs expired after only 30 days and every song renewed counted against your allotment. (This kind of market disconnection is not surprising, considering the lack of customer focus the record labels have had in recent history. Check out our blog on the issue.) ITunes simplified access and the experience. And we all knew how that worked out.

(btw--MusicNet has since been purchased by a private equity group and recast as a back-end solution for consumer brands, all the way to delivering white-labeled digital music stores.)

Overall, the message is simple. Marketing and high-tech firms alike need to simplify the complex. Here are 3 simple steps to consider:

1. One of the hardest elements of simplifying the complex is making choices on what is most important to the target customer and what differentiates your product or service from everything else.
2. Speak to their customer in their language, not yours.
3. And finally, boil it down until it is so simple it is obvious.

Nintendo reinvigorated their presence in the gaming market, not by trying to leapfrog with features like their competitors did, but by focusing instead on the experience and an under-served market that hadn't warmed up to video games. And we can attest after playing with our Wii consistently for the past couple of months that Nintendo simplified the complex and the result is sheer joy!

It's hard work to simplify the complex, but worth the trouble. Try it. Your customers will love you for it. And so will your CFO.

Lisa