KISS
I am not one for acronyms let me tell you. Having worked in various companies and industries over the years, I have wasted parts of my brain to storing so many silly acronyms for systems and depts and everything else.
Anyway several (many, many) years ago I was told about KISS. I had no idea what this person was talking about. As a marketer and experienced product manager I felt a little foolish. I did look it up and found out that it was the acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid. As I said it was many years ago.
This week I read two interesting articles that bring me back to this principle. The first is a blog post on the MYBRC website. I often leave comments on his blog because the topics are small business related, talk about relevant issues that Carbonite clients are interested in and are basically interesting. This week’s was about the closure or demise of Borders. You can read it here.
My take on it all was how important it is to stick to what you do best and not try to be everything to everyone. This is particularly relevant for a technology service like Carbonite. You see software providers are notorious for overloading their software. The list of possible enhancements grows each week. The loudest customers get theirs to the top and the product and development managers spend months working out how to effectively deliver each enhancement.
Once out the new features are used by 5% or less of customers. They usually result in some interface changes that confuse the other 95% of loyal customers and make them look at alternatives.
As a Product Manager it is like being stick between a rock and hard place – do you continue to evolve the product or stick to the basics which made it so successful. Thankfully it seems Carbonite to date has chosen the later and has gradually improved the service without making it do everything that the competitor offers do. It has also placed significant resources into support which many of our competitors haven’t.
I hear and read a lot about Drop Box these days and how popular it is with the technology sector. No doubt it is a great product and good luck to them but there is no reason why Carbonite needs to follow in this path just so that comparison sites and the cream of the technology world can recommend it.
If you really want to use the features that Drop Box offers has then simply use Drop Box.
Carbonite has focused on the KISS principle because so far it keeping it simple made it one of if not the leading consumer online backup provider in the US and the rest of the world. The formula works.
The second article I read was a comparison of Carbonite versus Mozy, Yet another one. The recommendation was to use Carbonite but not because it was technically better. The reasons where because it was simpler with less in it and because it offered you support both paid and free.
They were the key reasons and they are absolutely right. On many occasions I have had customers call asking why they should buy via Australia when they could buy the service direct via the US. Or customers comparing Carbonite with Mozy Free (2GB) or Carbonite with Drop Box free (2GB). I always come back to the point that if you are not confident with a computer than these free services are not for you. If your PC fails and you don’t know how to start retrieving your data then what are you going to do if the service offers no support. It is free for a reason. Pay something for the service so that you can get support. Furthermore buying a local service means that you can atleast call and speak to someone during normal hours.
Anyway, that is me for the week. I hope Carbonite continues to focus on the KISS principle and therefore stays lean and mean.
