With services – productised or not – we sometimes add “extras” believing that more stuff = more value.
I’d argue the exact opposite.
Value comes from subtracting, not adding.
Quick example: Years back, I partnered with a business incubator and offered an “express logo” for startups heading to investor pitches – a client could fill out a form that answered enough questions for me to get some context, an indication of style, and they could upload other logos they liked for guidance. The guarantee was one new logo in 24 hours.
It came with an understanding that these things were not included:
The value was not in crafting an amazing brand, or making it so versatile and flexible that it could work across all channels and mediums, or capturing the vision of the visionary CEO – it was the 24hr delivery guarantee.
These teams couldn’t go into a pitch “unbranded”, and this was a way to ensure that. They’d address branding properly after they were funded – this was a quick and dirty kick-start.
Had I included any of those things, the 24hr guarantee – my big value piece – was basically pointless.
Importantly, they didn’t need any of it.
This is the “Scope and Exclusions” slice of the One Shiny Object framework.
Removing exclusions means your product is more streamlined with fewer bottlenecks, interruptions, obstacles, and (hopefully) anything that could slow it down or devalue it.
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