Simplifying your product strategy is a competitive advantage

One of my most important lessons from years of working on WhatsApp is that simplicity isn’t just a design choice — it’s a competitive advantage. Why? Because when the world feels so complicated, products that feel simple are a sanctuary.

Think about the products you use every day. A cup, a chair, a light switch? These are hugely successful products — because they are simple. Knives are my favorite example. They’ve been around for millions of years, there’s one in every home, and no one ever has to explain how to use them. And a knife only works because everything unnecessary has been removed — that’s literally the definition of sharpening a knife.

I think about simplifying a product strategy the same way — sharpening the main idea by removing everything unnecessary. For WhatsApp, simplicity was actually the key to making the app work for everyone. Our goal was to give anyone in the world the feeling of being with their friends and family, even when they’re separated by geography or circumstance. But if we added too many features that our users didn’t already understand, it could make them feel confused, or overwhelmed.

I get it! I build these products for a living, and I still get disoriented when one of my apps changes. It feels like someone moved the furniture around in my house and now I’m banging my knees on a couch in the middle of the night.

So for our users, we focused on: did my calls and messages go through, for free, every time? We had to resource that before anything else. Just like a knife, that simple focus cut through any confusion. No one had to wonder “what is this app for?” or “why should I use it?” And after we had established that value prop, we could add other features on top.

Another famous industry example is Burbn, an app launched 10 years ago that let you do lots of stuff: check in, make plans, earn points, share photos. But it didn’t take off until the founders chopped off everything but photo sharing. Now, of course, we know that app as Instagram.

My shortcut for simplifying a strategy: It’s not prioritization until it hurts. We sometimes think about prioritization as “cutting all the unnecessary work.” But if something were unnecessary, we’d already have cut it!

Prioritization means cutting things that are valuable so I can double down on what makes my product indispensable. That means users will know what my app is for and I’ll get data faster about whether my core value prop works for users. If I'm not disappointed by a few items on my product’s “cut” list, I’m not prioritizing deeply enough.

Of course, like everything, judgment matters. If you’re keeping planes in the air or medical devices humming, please, don’t cut anything! As a frequent flier, every edge case matters 🙂. But for most of us, the core question to ask is: What’s the 1 thing that makes my product indispensable? Can I get that right and then add everything else? That reduces pressure on us builders by giving us a clear focus, and reduces pressure on our users to learn everything all at once.

Happy (belated) new year! I’m wishing all of you all the best this year.