The next small thing

In our blog we get a lot of good stuff form Tom Peters blog . Thanks for that Tom! This time he referred to the BusinessWeek article "The next small thing" . In that article the design firm 37signals and his founder Jason Fried are introduced. Fried is developing project management software fore the Internet and other stuff. The most important thing in this text is Jason Fried's credo - keep it small and simple.

He is calling his approach "getting real" and he uses the following guidelines:

"Underdo your competition: Businesses get caught up in a cycle of adding more features and services. Great opportunities exist for those who create the same products, but with more simplicity and ease of use.

Create services you would use: Few great product and service ideas come as a result of groupthink and committee meetings. Democracy is great, Fried says, but in the product-development arena, it rarely leads to great results. Great products are the result of solving problems for yourself—and then offering solutions to others.

Fund yourself: The more money you have, the more you'll waste, Fried says. He admits that outside funding is necessary for capital-intensive businesses, but for many service businesses—especially those utilizing technology or operating online—being able to turn your business concept into reality is getting less expensive by the day.

Take half: List all the features you'd like on your product and cut them in half, Fried advises. Then, cut that list in half. Being driven by time and budget rather than by your dream list of features will result in a much more solid, workable product that won't break the bank.

Call off the meetings: Fried is not a fan of endless meetings or documents filled with specifications and details that no one reads. He'd prefer to focus on the essentials—and those don't require a lot of meetings."