What Would This Look Like If It Were Easy?

It’s a deceptively simple question. 

Uber, worth $72B at time of writing, didn’t invent a new service to get to where it is today. From a customer point of view it just removed friction at several touch points: no more hailing, no paying at the end of the ride, no waiting for a receipt. 

The contribution to Uber’s value from “making things easy” on its own is surely counted in Billions. 

The title of this post, stolen from Tim Ferriss, is a great forcing function for arriving at a novel approach to a problem and it’s useful not only in the context of a Unicorn startup.

There’s real upside in asking yourself the very same thing, but there are a couple of ways to interpret the question. 

Firstly, the original intention.

For Tim, writing another book seemed like a momentous task, but the ‘easy’ way to do it was to compile the answers to a list of questions he asked of people that were world-class in their respective domain. He came away with another best-seller.

Consider how quickly you might you start something new if you’ve shifted an overwhelming challenge into a version that is seemingly easy to complete—importantly, that doesn’t necessarily mean reducing its quality or the solution’s output. 

Secondly, an alternate interpretation and the one I’m more interested in today.

Consider the work you do with (and for) your customers.

What would your customer onboarding resources resemble having looked at it with that lens? What about training material? Or product and feature design? One of the classic books to focus on user experience is literally titled ‘Don’t Make Me Think’. What would your buying process be? Or sign-up flow look like?

We’re all conditioned to want ‘easy’ and if you’re trying to create lasting behavioural change there are plenty of examples to suggest that reducing friction can play a large part in making that a reality.

So with all of that said, my challenge to you as you ponder starting that next project or attempt to drive adoption with that next customer:

What would this look like if it were easy?