The paradox of choice

Reader question from yesterday: Is “Paradox of choice” yours or is it a thing already?

Not mine, it’s a thing:

“The paradox of choice suggests that an abundance of options actually requires more effort to choose and can leave us feeling unsatisfied with our choice.”

It’s a tricky beast. The more options you have, the harder it is to choose. You overthink, wonder if you’ve made the right choice or worse… put off deciding altogether.

Clients can feel this too.

A long list of services can be overwhelming – they’re not sure what they need or how to choose, so moving on feels like as good an option as (or better than) reaching out.

But it’s about you as much as your clients… offering everything under the sun is exhausting.

Every project is a new proposal, new workflow, new templates, new process, new approach, very few reusable pieces.

You try hard to retain quality, but at the cost of efficiency. If you maintain efficiency, but it means you bear the extra costs you should be passing on. The “iron triangle” of fast, cheap or good: you can only pick two, is always at play.

The fix? Fewer options, clearer focus.

When you simplify your services, people know what they’re getting, and you regain control of how you deliver it.

By the way, as you get better at developing products, that iron triangle changes.

“Cheap” becomes “Valuable”, and you’ll be delivering on all three sooner than you realise, without compromises.