Have you ever tried explaining a complex concept to someone who has no experience in your industry?
Four years ago, I wanted to build an app to help non-technical people implement Scrum in their day-to-day processes. The problem was that few non-technical folks knew what Scrum was.
After I had the idea, I designed the layout for the app and spent two months building the MVP version. The MVP is like a mockup you build as a proof of concept. You use it to test whether your idea has legs with the users.
The MVP looked complete. You could create boards with different sections to manage tasks in different stages. You could assign points to each task to measure effort as easy, medium or a lot. You could assign tasks, add sprint goals, do retros and even push tasks back to future sprints.
In my mind, this was the best implementation of Scrum ever, especially for the non-technical crowd.
I started showing the MVP to people. One user interview after another, I noticed a pattern. The people were confused.
Scrum, what’s Scrum? What are sprints? Why am I running everywhere? What do I need points for? I don’t know what a sprint demo is.
These were some of the responses I got. I tried my hardest to explain to people what Scrum was, but I failed miserably. No one cared.
Then, it dawned on me that even though my app could be useful, it was too complicated for most folks to understand without someone coaching them through it. And since they couldn’t grasp the concept quickly, they dismissed the idea right away.
Six months later, after countless interviews and updates, I stripped the app of everything but the most essential parts.
The idea was super simple.
People decide what to work on next by looking at their emails and working on whatever is at the top of that list. I used this “top of the list” concept to rebuild the app and show it off to a new user batch.
Your tasks would bubble up to the top.
The concept worked. In three weeks, almost 900 people signed up and tried the software. It was a mini-success.
Reflecting on this experience made me wonder what would have happened if I had simplified my idea in the beginning. I made things too complex to start, which confused my users. I didn’t know how to explain things well, which confused my users even more.
My mini-success showed that simplicity is the secret to success. When you begin a project, start with a simple idea. Make sure you can explain it to your team, your boss, and your users.
The simplest idea wins. Always.