Dharmesh Shah explains how Steve Jobs cut Apple's product line by 70% in 1997, deliberately disappointing some customers to focus on the majority. Using Reese's as an example of what happens when you keep adding variations, Shah argues that simplification, not endless options, is what saves companies and delights most users.
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Sometimes you have to make changes that disappoint some so that you may better serve others. Take chocolate and peanut butter. When you combine those 2 things, you get the magic in the middle, the magical peanut butter cup. This is the OG PBC. When you bought this classic package, you got 2 peanut butter cups. Then people said, we want more cups. Reese's responded, sure, here's a king size with 4 cups. You're sure to win an Olympic medal. Go forth and prosper. Then people said, actually, we want 1 ginormous cup because sometimes we're having one of those days. For some of us, we call them weekdays. Reese's responded, sure, here's a Reese's Big Cup. Knock yourself out. Then people said, actually, we really like M&M's. Can you make Reese's like M&M's? Reese's responded, sure, here's Reese's Pieces. They taste like Reese's, but they have Ugly's 1970s colors. No, no, wait, we've got it, we've got it. Take the Reese's Pieces and put them inside a Reese's Cup. And Reese's was, this is getting kind of ridiculous. But fine, we heard you like Reese's, so we put Reese's in your Reese's. Enjoy. And they kept going and going and going until one day Steve Jobs said, stop, this is crazy. Steve Jobs did say that, but he didn't say it about Reese's. He said it about Apple. He had just come back as the interim CEO 1997 of Apple. So his title was iCEO, which I think is kind of cool. It's the little things. When he got back to Apple, Apple had hundreds of products because they were listening to retailers and everybody wanted their own thing versus listening to customers. Apple was losing money and by all predictions was going to go bankrupt within 90 days. And Apple said, stop the madness. He decided to cut the product line down by 70%, and he said every Apple product has to fit in one of these 4 categories. Did he disappoint some people? Absolutely. But a year later, Apple turned profitable, and they did it by better listening to customers and simplifying, because too much choice It's kind of scary to disappoint people, but the fear you should have is not disappointing a few, but not delighting the many.
