It's a fact of life that — regardless of the endeavour — quality, scope and time are intrinsically linked. Achieving mastery in a field takes decades of monomaniacal focus; the broader the scope of activity the longer it takes to achieve a given level of quality; and to get a lot done in a short time, we have to accept that things will be rough around the edges.

That's why most successful people say no to most things. If we want to do better, we have to do less because our time is finite.

As a guiding philosophy, less but better also applies to improving the experiential dimension of a product or service. The longer it takes to deliver an improvement the less impact it typically has, because the world can easily turn in the meantime. Years of practice have shown me that what customers appreciate most is a combination of brilliant basics and thoughtful details. Neither are typically accomplished when the scope of work is too broad because there's less time to consider each requirement.

If you aspire to deliver an exceptional customer experience then, try narrowing your scope, prioritizing more ruthlessly, and delivering what remains in focused, sequential iterations. This ultimately reduces risk, saves time and increases impact.

Less, but better then. And faster too.

See this post on LinkedIn