The Case for Pruning
Product teams often reward adding capabilities while overlooking the value of removing them. Through examples from gardening, ships and home renovation, this article examines how accumulated complexity can make products harder to use and change. It considers habits and incentives that discourage subtraction, then proposes ways to make simplification a regular part of delivery. Recurring customer feedback and measures of experience can reveal where pruning is needed. Planned reflection and explicit enhancement work can give teams permission to simplify rather than treating every addition as progress.
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