Harnessing the power of subtraction

Uncomplicated business software that customers and employees love. For years, that’s been a north-star principle at Freshworks. Yet the practice of it remains the exception and not the rule in the world of business software, judging by our own research as well as other recent studies about tech overload, the “toggle tax,” digital exhaustion, and overstuffed tech stacks.

Stanford professor, researcher, and bestselling author Bob Sutton traces the roots of these problems in his new book, “The Friction Project,” with fellow professor Huggy Rao. Costly software apps packed with unused features is a symptom of a bigger problem that afflicts every organization, not just SaaS companies. In an interview for The Works, it’s what Sutton and his fellow researchers call “addition sickness.”

In software, less truly is more

“Human beings are naturally predisposed to add complexity, and we don't take it away,” Sutton says. Software and technology companies often compound that problem by rewarding complexity instead of paring it back. “The people who add more stuff and complexity tend to get all the rewards,” says Sutton. “The people who don't add, who remove complexity, aren’t rewarded because removing stuff usually pisses somebody off.”

Overcoming addition addiction

What can companies do to overcome the addition addiction? Whether it’s overly complicated software or unnecessary meetings, “you’ve got to decide what to subtract before you remove it,” Sutton writes. In an exclusive excerpt from “The Friction Project,” Sutton explains how designated “friction fixers” inside an organization can conduct “good riddance reviews,” or even sludge audits—“quantitative and qualitative methods that expose the location and levels of destructive friction and resulting damage.”

Check out the interview and the book excerpt to find out how to ease the friction in your organization—whether it’s hiding in the tech stack or in the meeting you’re sitting in right now.

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