Imagine you’re a startup founder, juggling a million tasks at once. You’re pumped about your product, but one thing keeps nagging at you—is it too complex? Will users get it? Will your team? This is the challenge so many startups face: the temptation to overcomplicate things. But Steve Krug’s famous line, “Don’t Make Me Think,” is a timeless principle that cuts through that noise. Simplicity isn’t just a UX mantra; it’s a mindset that can transform how your startup runs.
Here are five lessons from Don’t Make Me Think every founder needs to keep top of mind as you build a product (and company) that thrives.
1. Don’t Make People Think (The Obvious Rule)
Think about this: You’re trying to find a restaurant on a new app, but the screen is cluttered with ads, features, and endless scrolling. Before you even get to the restaurant listing, you’re already frustrated. That feeling of frustration? That’s what you want to avoid at all costs in your startup.
When I walked into our coworking space one day, something felt off. People seemed frustrated before they even made it to the office. The signage wasn’t clear. I grabbed our community development lead, and we walked through the entire experience—from outside the building to sitting down for a meeting—documenting every step. How do visitors know which floor to go to? How are they greeted? What’s their experience if they’re waiting? We broke it all down, just like I would do when mapping out a user flow for a digital product.
The Psychological Impact of Complexity:
When users are faced with complexity, they don’t just get frustrated—they feel overwhelmed and even incompetent. This is cognitive load in action. Every extra step, every decision, takes mental energy, and too much of it can cause people to freeze or walk away.
This isn’t just about navigation—it’s about how your users feel about your brand. When they struggle to use your product, they associate your brand with stress and frustration. But when the experience is seamless, they feel empowered and confident. Studies show that simplicity drives higher satisfaction, more recommendations, and stronger brand loyalty.
Lesson for Startups: Just like in UX, if customers have to think too much about how to interact with your product or office, you’ve already created friction. Simplify the experience and remove points of confusion.
2. Minimize Distractions
Distractions don’t just frustrate—they paralyze. I remember when we were working on updates for Data Noodle. We had all this valuable data, but users didn’t know where to start because it was everywhere. The fix? Simplify. We reduced the number of visible options, enlarged key information, and minimized distractions. Suddenly, users were empowered instead of overwhelmed.
Real-World Example: Dropbox
Dropbox built its success on simplicity. At a time when Google Drive and OneDrive were already established, Dropbox differentiated itself by focusing on one core function: file sharing. They stripped away unnecessary features and made the experience intuitive. The result? Rapid adoption and a loyal user base.
Lesson for Startups: Too much information or too many features confuse users. Highlight what matters most, minimize distractions, and make sure users can accomplish their main goals quickly and easily.
3. Clarity Over Cleverness
I once worked with Real Crowd, a company that handles property investments, where I created an intricate icon set to explain real estate risk. It was clever—I was proud of it. But after testing it with one of our regular customers, it became clear that my cleverness wasn’t translating. The icons were confusing. So, I swapped them for something clear and simple, letters. It wasn’t as exciting, but it worked, and that’s what mattered.
Lesson for Startups: Clever designs and features can be fun, but if they don’t help the user understand the product better, they’ve failed. Clarity is always more important than creativity when it comes to usability. Make your messaging and features easy to understand.
4. Test Early, Test Often
At Meta, we once launched a big new feature that I was really excited about. But instead of rolling it out in phases and testing as we went, we released it all at once. The feedback? Overwhelming. The feature was too much, too soon, and users didn’t know how to engage with it. Lesson learned. We should’ve launched smaller pieces and gathered feedback incrementally.
Lesson for Startups: It’s tempting to ship everything at once, especially in a startup where there’s pressure to deliver. But start small, gather feedback, and iterate. That way, you’ll spot issues before they escalate, and you’ll save time and resources by fixing them early.
5. Simplify Team Dynamics
Fast-paced startups can get chaotic, and communication gets lost quickly. At Nafasi, we simplified how we kept our team aligned by constantly reinforcing our mission and values. We printed it on t-shirts, put it up on the walls, and talked about it in every meeting. This kept everyone focused on our goals and helped avoid unnecessary noise.
Real-World Example: Slack
Slack initially had more features, but during early testing, they found the extra functions were distracting users from what Slack did best: communication. By cutting down features and focusing on streamlined conversations, Slack created a tool that teams actually loved using.
Lesson for Startups: Keep your mission clear and repeat it often. Simplifying communication helps your team stay focused and on the same page, especially as you scale.
Balancing Simplicity and Innovation
A lot of founders think simplifying means sacrificing innovation, but that’s not true. Simplicity actually enhances innovation by allowing your product’s core value to shine through. Take the iPhone, for example. Apple didn’t load the phone with more buttons—they removed them, letting the touch screen revolutionize the way we interact with tech.
By simplifying your product, you focus on perfecting what really matters. Think about Google’s homepage. No clutter, no distractions—just one function, but it’s done so well that it became the standard.
Final Thoughts: The Power of Simplicity
Simplicity doesn’t mean doing less—it means doing what matters better. The principles in Don’t Make Me Think show us that reducing complexity in your product, processes, and team communication creates a better experience for everyone involved. Your users will feel smarter, your team will be more efficient, and your brand will gain loyalty and trust.
Call to Action:
Take a look at your startup. Are there areas where complexity has crept in? Whether it’s in your product or your team processes, pick one thing and simplify it today. You’ll be surprised by how big an impact small changes can have.
