The Extra Step

The best integrations we shipped this year were used by almost nobody, at first.

They were good. Users had asked for them. We built the flow so nobody would have to think. Then we launched and waited.

Nothing happened.

Part of what I do is work with my team to bring valuable data sources into our product, so our users can find better leads and grow their business. This spring we connected a long list of providers, the kind of data people pay a lot for elsewhere. To use them, all a user had to do was bring their own API key.

That one extra step killed almost all of them.

The only one that got real usage was the one where the team had built a full workflow around it. It wasn't the best data. It was the one that fit into what people were already doing.

So our engineering team and I removed the step. We routed the data through our own account, so users didn't need a key at all. Usage moved a bit more, but it still wasn't a big mover.

Then we learned the same lesson from a different angle. The vast majority of our users never leave the main search. A provider built in as a filter there gets used on every search. The same provider sitting one click further away gets ignored.

We learned it again when we launched company search as a starting point. Our users want one thing: find the email, put it in a campaign, go. Starting from a different place, spending a few more credits, then finding the emails was too many decisions in a row, even though it gave them better leads.

And once someone has the email, almost nobody goes back to enrich it, even with dozens of options right there. They've already moved on. Value that shows up after the moment of action might as well not exist.

Here's what I think is going on

Everyone is already on a path. Your users, your partners, your team, you. Every extra step you add is a small decision: keep going, or stop. Most people stop. Not because what you built isn't good, but because it asked them to walk a different way than they already walk.

We assume people adopt what's valuable. They adopt what fits.

To be fair, some people will always take the extra step. Every product has power users who read the docs and connect every integration. I love those people. But you can't build a business on them, and you shouldn't design for them first.

I've seen this outside work too. When I started writing more, I made myself a daily list of questions to answer so I'd always have something to write about. I abandoned it on the very first walk. It was homework: one more thing to remember, and it made writing feel less creative and less free.

Now I just talk while I walk and sort it out later. Same goal, no extra step, and I can actually do it without friction.

So the question I keep asking, about products, partnerships and habits, isn't "is this valuable?"

It's "what step am I asking someone to take that they weren't already taking?"

Then I try to remove it.

The goal is to make things simpler. People should spend as little time as possible figuring out how to use something, and as much time as possible getting results from it. Data creates value when the user, or the tool, can act on it easily, not when it takes a lot of mental energy to get anything done.

Look at whatever you're building right now: a product, a team process, a routine you keep dropping. Where's the extra step?

Marc

P.S. Tell me about an extra step you removed, at work or anywhere else, and what happened. I read every message.