When Product Suckage Is Ok

Ryan Singer at 37 Signals (the terrific Chicago-based start-up behind Basecamp, etc.) penned a terrific post "What's the suckage to usage ratio?" which makes a case for purposeful product design imperfection. In a nutshell, Ryan argues that imperfection is ok, even wise, in cases where you know a particular feature or experience is destined to be a fringe use case. If you focus your energies on the elements of the product that will define that experience for your users, they will forgive the flaws around the edges that they rarely need to encounter. In fact, they can still be passionate advocates.

I couldn't agree more with this philosophy. As a perfectionist myself, I found these hard words to live by, but ultimately they ring true. I wish my iPhone could run apps in the background so I could listen to Pandora while banging out a text and before that I wished I could copy/paste, but neither beef stops me from loving the device and influencing others to buy it too. Apple understood which things to get right and which things they could leave for future releases because they truly understand their customer needs and the market.

To that point, in order to find your optimal suckage to usage ratio, make sure you have an intimate understanding of your customer and their usage of your product/service. Had Apple packed every possible feature on the market in the iPhone and failed to create an intuitive, elegant and innovative interface (or done it all and charged 2-3x more), the product would have surely failed.

For those outside of the tech product space, like my multifamily friends, this is analogous to what I'd call the "glamour amenities" at an apartment community. Oftentimes, the investment you make in a renovated clubhouse or Fios infrastructure, etc. could be part of a well-constructed strategy and market positioning, and in those cases such features are likely used frequently and core to your brand essence. But there are clearly times when these endeavors produce nice to haves and are created at the expense of core experiences, like maintenance. Before getting into a feature race with the community down the road, take stock in your renter needs and be sure the everyday experience is great before dabbling around the edges of customer use. It's ok if some things aren't up to your standards (or your renters), just make sure they are the right things and have a sensible plan for when you will eventually address them.