Simplicity Wins - Less is More
Take care of people's mental capacity.
It's 2022, and the IT market is still in a gold rush, and offers are at an all-time high. Money is flooding startups and everyone wants more developers just to show off to investors.
We want to retain the most skilled employees, but we can't afford to keep salaries at the top of the market range. After months of asking for an increased budget, I finally get the green light to spend more on my teams and keep the best engineers with us.
Designing bonus programs is difficult as each employee has different incentives. We got the possibility to use on-off bonuses and managers had flexibility with how these bonuses were paid out. Some did partial payouts each month with varying amounts, but my approach was much simpler.
I offered one payout at the end of the 12 months if the employee stays with us. It could be explained to employees using one simple sentence: "You stay with us for 12 months, and after that period — the bonus is yours". I was sceptical that money could help but it had a positive influence as one of a few contributing factors — most people got their bonuses. Other managers at the company copied this simpler approach.
In this article, I'm going to share with you why a simple solution works better than a complicated one.
Cognitive Load
Our brain is limited when it comes to how much information it can process. The more information it needs to process the more energy it consumes. The simpler the message is, the easier it is to understand it.
The idea of the "elevator pitch" is a great example of this. If you cannot explain clearly what your business does while on a short elevator ride with a potential investor, they won't be convinced to invest.
Simple language is not the sign of a simple mind — it's the opposite. Only when you understand something really well you can explain it simply.
Example — Business Model
The founder of CD Baby, the first online store for independent music, had no idea how to design pricing. So, he went to a local record store and asked: “If I’m a local artist, how would you price my music?” They replied: "You set the selling price, we take a flat $4 cut, and pay you every week." He copied this for his online business but added $35 per album for the initial setup. These two numbers, a $4 cut and a $35 setup, were his business model for 6 years after the company started, and it grew to millions of dollars in revenue.
The simpler it is, the less you worry about hidden costs or fees, which makes you trust the business more.
Which services do you trust more? Ones where you don't understand how it is all calculated, or plain and simple ones?
Process Perception
Simplicity helps people perceive processes as transparent and fair, and they value transparency. If the process of getting a promotion or a salary raise is clear and easy to understand, then it has more credibility
People need to understand what is happening and why. If we leave too much room for their interpretations, they can construct a story that fits their narrative, trying to figure out why something happened.
source: Ground Rules of Fairness at Work
Summary
When designing anything, describe it to a friend as simply as you can.
Then, ask them to repeat how it works. If they got it right, it's a good model.
Less is more!
Thanks for reading,
— Michał
Post Notes
Discover Weekly — Shoutouts
Articles that might help you explore new perspectives, which I’ve read recently:
"My secret to being optimistic 99% of the time." by
"What I wish somebody told me during my first year as a manager" by
Great article! Short and to the point.
The power of Simplicity.
This applies not only to Software Engineering but to mostly anything in life.
I used to write very complex, long text. Decided to write shorter, simpler text. Now everybody can understand it. More are enjoying it.
Less is More.
Simplicity wins every time.
But explaining complex concepts in simple terms without dumbing your explanation is a skill that needs to be cultivated.
Writing is an excellent way to practice this skill, and it is oftentimes overlooked in the engineering world.