#6 :: Principles from Unix in surviving a recession
A swarm of macroeconomic factors are jockeying around right now, testing companies small and large to their very limits - rampant inflation, uncontrolled energy prices, spiralling taxes, dearth of talent, unrelenting cost of materials, painful supply chain issues... The reality of this gloom is hastening, as we await winter’s first bills.
But there’s a silver lining. Throughout history, tough times have always brought about new products, different ways to address problems, better business models. This is how the best firms have adapted and thrived. GM, Microsoft, MailChimp all pivoted during hard times to become even more successful.
A recession demands that we find ways to do things more efficiently, solve new problems, enhance what is already there… to iterate, improve and innovate. And this is design’s forte - finding the right problems to solve, and giving people what they need, when they need it.
So collected this week is three principles about deploying design to shine:
Do one thing well: Principles from Unix in app design
Cut the noise: Starbucks and the 80k mediocre coffees
Solve the most important problem: Airlines and timeliness
01: Do one thing and do it well: The Unix philosophy
The Unix operating system was developed in Bell Labs in 1969. The developers, a tight-knit group led by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, pioneered software engineering as a discipline. Their legacy reaches far beyond Unix itself into how software is built and experienced, even five decades on.
In the 1970s, one of the developers, Doug McIlroy, documented a manifesto - a Unix philosophy - that became as influential as the tech itself. These principles were created to guide others writing the programs that ran on the system, ensuring that everything was built around the principles of modularity, reusability, and user friendliness.
“Write programs that do one thing and do it well” upheld the core tenet of the Unix philosophy. Each component should effectuate a single task in the most efficient way possible, yet with ease and simplicity. A zen habit, this is closely linked to improvement and enhancement, and even the most un-zen philosophy, maximisation.
That’s what makes quality products that people love to use. Satisfying a need in a straightforward way. Think about the origins of the Headspace app, the first of its kind in the mindfulness category. One guy, 365 sequential sessions: open app, push play. Simple. Beautiful. Joyful. This slowly-slowly philosophy allows businesses space to grow by making mini improvements to the core functionality. By watching, gauging response and learning, then incrementally adding capabilities, Headspace took a captive and loyal audience on a long-term journey.
This is interesting because:
One thing at a time: The best products start out doing just one thing really well. It is now widely considered to offer the best experience in the sector. Learn, grow, watch, do it some more, improve.
Loyalty: Headspace took subscribers along on its mindfulness journey, before sensitively monetising that audience.
Growth can come later: This approach is designed to allow incremental improvements, enabling growth and improvement of the core product or service.
Above: Headspace’s core mission is zen
02: Simple but quality: Starbucks and the 80k mediocre coffees
Continuing with zen: Simplicity has always run counter to choice. Since the 1980s, consumers have come to expect infinitesimal options. Movies, music, milk, medicines… Giving customers some degree of choice is a good thing, but psychologists warn that too many options leads to dissonance, dissatisfaction and overwhelm. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz argues that the more we switch from possibility to possibility, the less satisfied we become with any decision.
This is part of the quantity vs quality trade-off. Imagine the predicament in Starbucks, where there are more than 80,000 products on offer - different combinations of type, size and flavour. Yet our decaf double shot Americano with oat milk and chocolate powder always pales in comparison to that basic Turkish coffee we drank on holiday last summer.
As the recession bites, does something have to give? We’re hearing about establishments cutting corners - reducing the quality of ingredients, down-sizing features, or laying off staff - all the while raising prices to cover costs.
Yet the inescapable truth is that having a great product is more important than a product that doesn’t quite cut it amongst the myriad options on offer. Against the mediocre products tailored to our every whim and preference. Starbucks is ubiquitous, but we still intentionally seek out those specialist coffee shops that care about the quality and provenance of the beans they blend.
As belts are tightened, we will see consumers opting for quality where it matters to them. Ordering just one thing of better quality, albeit less often. Successful businesses identify where their customers attach value - whether that be in convenience, cost or quality. Then, they need to double down on delivering the one thing they do really well. Try to be all things to all people, and you end up nothing to nobody. And nobody wants to be middle-of-the-road.
This is interesting because:
A recession affords businesses the opportunity to redress the quality vs quality vs choice trade off.
Less really is more: Instead of offering infinitesimal choices, giving people what they love, value and need reaps long term reward
A coherent mission behind the value prop clarifies strategic approach.
03: Finding and solving the most important problem
The last theme is about being better than the competition on just one distinguishing but valuable factor. Since only one company in any sector can compete based on price alone, all the rest need to find the one thing that they have the capabilities to do better than everyone else.
To have any success in doing this, we need to get to know and understand and know our audience - to uncover their innermost needs and desires - at all costs. Design excels in this.
While it has always competed on price very well, Ryanair does something else miraculously well. Punctuality. In the age of travel disruption, reliability is again becoming a key differentiating factor. Ryanair makes sure it’s very, very good at getting people to their destination on time. In 2021, the “on-time airline” reported that more than 90% of its flights were on time.
Ryanair’s correctly identified that getting passengers, especially business passengers, to their destination on time is paramount. It makes sense as a business model. Not only is its compensation paid to passengers for late flights minimal, it also largely avoids the fines levied by airports and transport authorities for missed take-off and landing slots.
It has long focused on putting its expenditure and effort on punctuality. Its philosophy is unlikely to breed loyalty, rather positioning itself as reliable, a necessity amongst the chaotic higher-end competitors.
This is interesting because:
Ryanair speaks to the principle of identifying what’s most important to customers and fulfilling that specific need. Nothing more, nothing less.
So Ryanair demonstrates that design is not always about the experience. It gets away with that because it has been clear about what to expect.
Identifying that timeliness is the more important than anything else makes sense for a business that is fined for tardiness.