This past spring we decided to prune our product line.
We stepped back, took inventory, reviewed how things were growing, considered which products mattered most to us, thought about which direction we wanted to go, talked about what we were proud of, and made some decisions.
This process reminded me a lot of pruning a tree. Before you start pruning, you circle around the tree and take in the shape. You have to step back and get a wide view in order to see the whole thing.
Then you start making some observations.
You notice this branch crossing and rubbing that branch. You see suckers shooting straight up taking energy from the healthy limbs. You see dead wood, you see thriving wood, you see leaders, and you see future problems. And depending on when you’re looking, you might see next season’s buds.
It’s always hard to cut something you grew from scratch. You feel a fundamental obligation to see it blossom and continue to grow strong. You know how long things take to grow, so cutting things back is an emotional process. “Man, this branch has been growing for 10 years and I’m going to cut it down in 10 seconds…”
But you also know that cutting things back means that you’ve favoring what’s left. You pick the winners, you help the tree grow up strong. And most importantly, while pruning gets rid of a lot, it also opens up new opportunities. Light gets in where it couldn’t before. Air circulates better. And new growth comes to life.
Now let’s get back to software.
Initially when we decided to prune our product line, we did it because we felt we had too many products to maintain. We’re bigger than we used to be, but we’re still a small company. It’s so easy to create (because creating is fun), but it’s also easy to ignore (because ignoring doesn’t involve work). Over time, if you create too much and don’t clean it up, you can lose control over quality. Quality, like time, is a limited resource. We felt like we might be on the verge. Hence the pruning session.
So we decided to stop accepting new signups for Ta-da List, Writeboard, and Backpack. We also stopped selling our Draft iPad app. We sold Sortfolio, stopped selling the Getting Real PDF (we’re giving it away for free now), and pruned some internal non-customer facing tech, too.
But an interesting thing happened. Not too long after we pruned, a couple new product ideas started bubbling up. Before pruning, the last thing we were thinking about was adding more products. Now, with some breathing room, new ideas are getting light, getting fresh air, and coming to life.
Not only are we thinking about a few new products, but we’re thinking very differently about these new products. One is a variation on an existing product. And one is entirely new for us. But both are also attached to a new business model.
I feel like our exploration into new business models would have never happened had we not cut some old growth back and let some new light in.
We’re finishing these two new products up now. We aren’t ready to announce release dates or talk much about them yet, but hopefully it won’t be too long now.
So, while it’s hard to cut back, it’s good to remember that subtraction can lead to addition. New shoots, new sprouts, and new ideas often need new room to grow. They’re waiting, but you need to clear the way.
Lauri Jutila
on 12 Nov 12Who Tries Out The Most Stuff, Wins.
Fail. Forward. Fast.
I’m not saying the products 37signals is discontinuing were failures, but letting go of the old that perhaps isn’t performing or working so well anymore is a healthy sign of growth and development.
Steve
on 12 Nov 12Thanks. This really inspired me to get a haircut tomorrow!
Jenkins
on 12 Nov 12Lets see how many more “to- do” based applications 37signals can create.
Given that Tada list, Basecamp and Highrise are effectively all the same app.
Bob
on 12 Nov 12Really cool. I wonder if you can extrapolate this to your life as well. Get rid of the things and responsibilities that are not working and see what new stuff you can let into your life.
Cool.
Anonymous Coward
on 12 Nov 12What level of commitment do you feel to your customers?
What about customers who paid for your “daft iPad app”, will they get updates and compatibility patches as ios updates? What about backpack customers who use it on a daily basis, after paying you for years are they expected to find a different bit of software?
Why do I ask…
Because we use both basecamp and highrise on a daily basis, and watching you prune your tree and axe things to make room for you to tackle new interesting things for you, leaves me wondering.
When will the branch I’m sat on be cut off?
Jason Fried
on 12 Nov 12AC, we feel a great level of commitment to our customers. That’s why we went the extra mile and didn’t shut down Ta-da, Writeboard, or Backpack for existing customers. If you already have those products, we’re continuing to support them for the forseeable future. We just aren’t accepting new signups.
Re: Draft for iPad. If you have it, you have it – nothing is taken away. I still use Draft all the time. We won’t be updating it anymore, but it still works.
Simon
on 12 Nov 12Yep that’s the cycle of life ! Great post.
That reminds me of the creative destruction of Joseph Schumpeter when talking about capitalism.
Aaron
on 12 Nov 12Pruning can be surprisingly refreshing! I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with next.
Colin
on 12 Nov 12I do that on a regular basis in my appartment. Last action was to give away all the clothes I hadn’t worn in the last 12 month. Unbelievable how good I felt after that!
Josh Henry
on 12 Nov 12I fought for many years against what I’d always heard, “do one thing but do it really well”. I wanted to keep adding and finding other ways we could grow our list of available services. I too recently took stock of what we were doing and decided to focus on those areas where we really provide a competitive advantage. Its interesting that since focusing about 5 months ago, we have enlisted several new clients that I’m not sure we’d have gotten had we not focused our efforts. Pruning is good to allow new things to grow.
Don’t want to get too preachy, but John 15:2 alludes to this very point.
twiz
on 12 Nov 12Pretty clever.
A lot of people use email for project managent, an obvious and direct competitor to Basecamp. So what do you do?
1. You “prune” and give the company a month of “exploratory time” to work on whatever project they want.
2. In that month you build a better (“competing on easy”) email solution to offer those that still use email to manage projects (and regular users of email).
3. This new email product is then a natural funnel to the project management solution that is Basecamp.
1-3 = new “business model”, marketing approach
Not bad at all. I would’ve said create a todo list app with no discussions, file uploads, calendars, etc. To funnel people (from a different end) that “need to do more” with their projects to Basecamp, but this is much better (I think).
Oh yeah. 4, you charge for the email solution so that even if people don’t use this new “competing on easy” email product they at least hear about it in a who-is-this-company-charging-for-email sort of way. Or you just get regular users paying for email.
I like the idea of using other apps as a marketing tool for your main money making product.
Pretty clever.
Fred
on 12 Nov 12I guess it’s “Rework” at work now.
I remember vividly how Draft iPad app was going against mainstream. It was limited features but cost 10x the average drawing apps. The Draft app’s success story in AppStore landscape was something I would like to see. Unfortunately that would require the app to sell really well and keep itself in the market.
Thomas Edwards
on 12 Nov 12I think that everybody needs to step back and look at what they’re doing now and again. But when you take out the shears, don’t piss off your customers.
When you launched Draft, you set the price at $9.99. Nobody else was doing that then. A lot of people (many of the 180 comments) said that was too expensive.
I bought into it, and I bought the app. I thought ‘these guys mean business’. A solid investment of $9.99 means I’m going to get updates and support for the useful lifespan of the product – not like those other free apps.
Jason, here’s here’s what you said on the lack of features and the price point:
“We might add yellow to version 2.0 in 2012.”
Other staff justified the price, citing to look after those customers who bought it.
Two years later, with almost next to no updates, you’re now telling those customers to go elsewhere. There are apps that were free (or maybe 99¢) then, which are still free now, and have been updated along the way.
I get why you want to prune, we all need to at some point – but you are a business with a reputation. I currently pay $20 a month for Basecamp – but things like this put doubt in my mind and will make me consider whether I want to renew Basecamp when I have a doubt, and it certainly makes me think twice about buying any of your iOS experiments you release after you’ve hired your developer.
Matt
on 12 Nov 12“Initially when we decided to prune our product line, we did it because we felt we had too many products to maintain. We’re bigger than we used to be”
Well I think that someone have forgot to read: “Re-work”!
Nick
on 12 Nov 12So let me get this straight, you killed:
(1) Ta-da List,
(2) Writeboard,
(3) Sortfolio,
(4) BackpackIt,
(5) Draft and
(6) Getting Real ….
to give you the freedom to focus on redesigning this horrible blog?
karl
on 12 Nov 12Reminds me of Thomas Kinsella’s Mirror in February
”... the awakening trees, Hacked clean for better bearing, stand defaced Suffering their brute necessities…”
George M.
on 13 Nov 12+1 to Nick
Even though I know he’s trolling, there’s a lot of truth to what he’s saying.
Fred
on 13 Nov 12@thomas we actually don’t mind paying that extra bucks for Draft app if it means viable business model for many app developers out there. I would even hope that this model will succeed, setting a new wave of quality apps. But I guess it doesn’t workout quite well, business is filled with a lot of uncertainties.
Remember what history taught us. When NeXT unveiled their $9,999 cube, Sun was selling their cheap commodity hardwares at a tenth of what the cube costed then. Sun grew to billion dollars company, NeXT was barely profitable. What NeXT promised: a fourth wave of computing device, a platform of all possible custom apps, worth investing for a long term valuation.
It is always downward spiral trend following the rise of cheap commodity alternatives. Brand owner or Reputable Company will have to think really hard to create a remarkable distinguished business model that survives. And majority of them are poised to fail. The cost alone will probably kill you before you even make a break. If you are on the business owner side, you would probably do the same. Think of Sparrow mail, they quit and get acquired simply because it was not and still is not viable to give lifetime support for a paltry $4.99, there is no way they could charge an upgrade with broken model of AppStore either. You would rather quit now or create even greater havoc later when more people are buying.
It’s smart decision to stop selling Draft App.
Arik Jones
on 13 Nov 12I’m really saddened that the Draft app is gone. At the very least, you could have left it on the App store and made it free. But I guess there are plenty alternatives out there.
How do you manage customer reaction during this pruning? I’m sure you have a few loyal customers who aren’t thrilled about all the pruning.
D.
on 13 Nov 12Thank you for this post! I have mailed it around to all “designy” partners and coworkers as the perfect argument to why investing time and money in 37s-services is a bad idea.
GeeIWonder
on 13 Nov 12This is all true, and probably very good advice for managing a collection. or a bonsai.
But these are not little dolls on your shelf, these are tools you have released and sold, and which become, once in the wild—part of people’s personal and/or business infrastructures, and their investment as well. If I’m the new guy on the team and I can’t get the toolset the team is using, that’s a problem. For me and for the team.
And for you. Because while you may no longer want to be in the business of selling theses specific tools you are still in the business of getting people to rely on those tools you do still want, for now at least, to be able to sell.
So yes, this post might give considerable comfort to your enemies.
Devan
on 13 Nov 12I too am wondering why Draft was not sold off to another developer or made free on the store ‘as is’. At the moment, I am thinking it is lucky that I didn’t suggest my development team use it as a collaborative design tool, otherwise, right now I would be stuck with some of my team using it, and any new members coming on board unable to use the same toolsets.
Just hope it isn’t happening to other (larger) design teams right now…
DHH
on 13 Nov 12Arik, we manage it as we’ve always have by being honest about it. There are always going to be some people who are unhappy about whatever changes you make to your business. They have every right to be. Just like you have to right to determine what you want your business to be.
D, I’m sure they’ll all be very afraid to know that we continue to support a free service like Ta-da list that premiered seven years ago for existing users.
Devan, software decays. What prompted us to take Draft off the market was that it wasn’t retina compatible or iPhone 5-screen optimized and we weren’t going to make it do that. As many others have mentioned, there are lots of other drawing tools available, so anyone interested in collaborative design has plenty of options.
Florencia
on 13 Nov 12Thank you
Richard Worrall
on 13 Nov 12I think the people writing these dumb comments must be the same people responsible for corporate IT policies around the world that caused millions of man hours to be wasted on Internet Explorer 6 support. Reeks of “this Mac has no floppy drive!”
Guys, way to go refusing the marginalise the future. I never really “got” Backpack or Tada List anyway – looking forward to what else you’re cooking up to replace them on the menu.
GeeIWonder
on 13 Nov 12@Richard
I don’t know. Software (and hardware, and everything else) decays. Usage wanes. That’s fine.
That’s not what this is. This is the removal of stuff that people still want to use and should reasonably be able to expect to use within their own framework at least.
Sudden unilateral decisions do not allow for graceful degradation or adjustment from the user or group of users who are always innovating behind your back. Nostalgia and whining aside, I think it’s legitimate to take issue with the decision but also – and maybe even worse – the philosophy described here.
It’s completely understandable why this decision would be made. Nobody wants to watch something they made and charged someone for slowly wane and die and become obsolete and even worse uncool. It’s way more cool and fun to launch the new thing.
But I don’t care if my electrical socket is cool as long as it’s still there and still the same shape when I need it (yes I’m sure your fancy 7-prong outlet is very nice and thank you so much for letting me keep the sockets I was already plugged into when you snuck into my office last night and upgraded the rest of them).
When it comes to tools I’ll take reliable over cool any day.
Thomas Edwdards
on 13 Nov 12@Fred
I don’t think your reply removes any validity from my argument. Sparrow mail was cheaper than Draft, did a lot more, was sold many times over and requires constant upgrading. All we needed Draft to do was support an extra colour and be Retina-enabled.
My point is simple: I trust 37signals less now because they’re prepared to piss off their customers for the sake of not bothering to update an app that costs more than all the competitor apps, which somehow are still going and have been updated.
Maybe the price was too expensive. Maybe they should have brought the price down. Maybe more people would have bought it, giving them a revenue stream. All they need to do is make sure it’s stable and works with the latest iOS, that’s it, nothing more. Hardly a full time job.
Sylvain Lemire
on 13 Nov 12Being a 37s Suite account client, I tried to use all the tools in my suite to the best I could. Recently, we implemented Backpack as our intranet tool. I thought that the problems I had with Backpack would be resolved in the future with a nice update, like Basecamp received. But I’m saddened to see that it will simply stay as it is, a little dated. So I think that I will try to find a replacement for Backpack. If anyone has any idea of a cool simple intranet tool for a small agency, let me know. Already the upcoming Evernote for business looks promising.
D.
on 13 Nov 12@DHH let me quote backpackit.com:
”...because we haven’t given Backpack much attention in the last few years…”
There is an unwritten (and sometimes written) contract between the SaaS-provider and its customs that the provider will continue to develop and improve the product the customer is paying for.
You have broken this unwritten contract. That is the reason why we have today made the jump and finally moved our data from Highrise to another provider.
Don’t get me wrong: My people like the new Basecamp and want to use it for short term projects. What I wouldn’t do any more is integrating business processes that require long term reliability around a 37signals product.
I am thankful for the inspiration that the early 37signals have given me. Getting Real and Basecamp literally changed how I view work and life. But this post is the straw that broke this camel’s back.
Nic
on 13 Nov 12So, no more by products?
Nate Otto
on 13 Nov 12An illustration… http://nongallery.com/post/35663616498/pruning-http-37signals-com-svn-posts-3318-prunin
Fred
on 14 Nov 12@thomas, your case suits my argument exactly. If they don’t stop selling Draft, more and more unhappy customers like you will turn away, lost of potential sales for their other products.
It’s their product, and it’s their business. It’s their right to exercise which decision that does good to the company’s long term prospect.
Get over it.
Michael
on 14 Nov 12I agree with the ideas here, but I literally do not understand how a much larger 37signals can’t stay on top of these largely maintenance-free apps as well as they used to as a small team. I have to conclude that productivity is not what it was or support/onboarding is eating up too much time. If that’s the case, then pruning is a great idea—but again, I do not understand how it got to that point.
Vijay
on 14 Nov 12Hi Jason, thoughtful post. Thank you.
DHH
on 14 Nov 12D, I hope you find what you’re looking for. I think you’ll be disappointed, though, if you expect that every tool or service that you decide to use is going to be around until the end of time.
Tony
on 14 Nov 12Jason,
If I’m reading this correctly, it seems like you’ve found a fancy way to say “we got bored”. I think that is what is concerning to us customers.
You said it was originally about resources, but you’re adding new products which suggests the lack of updates wasn’t really about resources, but interest.
If you said: “these free apps don’t bring us revenue and Backpack isn’t doing that well, so we’re no longer accepting new signups” that would make total sense, and I doubt you’d have as much concern from customers. We get business decisions.
But you’ve presented it as “this doesn’t interest us that much anymore” so we’re not going to work on it anymore. That’s a scary thought for a customer of a service provider. Are you guys providing services or experimenting with things that you like until you don’t like them anymore?
What do you think about the customers who have paid you for years, thus affording you the luxury of being bored?
If my cable/internet/phone provider suddenly said “that’s the bandwidth you’re getting forever, we’re moving on from internet services”, I might be concerned about the other services as well. I may move onto another service provider. These aren’t just ‘company changes’, they affect many other companies that you provide services to. I wonder if you’re concerned about the effect that could have on your hard-earned reputation as a reliable service provider? You must have thought through these things. Interesting choices being made.
Looking forward to seeing what the new products are!
Tek
on 14 Nov 12@Tony and others… Do you think they would be pruning these products if they were successful, making lot of money and have people generally excited about them? I do not think so. Nobody kills goose that lays golden eggs. Rather, what most likely is the case is that these products do not bring much money in, yet require such commitment in time that its not worth it to keep them around.
And turn the argument other way around, would you be willing to pre-pay for service product for 5 or 10 years? I know I would not, I prefer no commitment month-to-month deal. Kind of works both ways. If you want assurances, you’ve got to pay for them.
And its not like they killed the products completely, they simply don’t accept new sign-ups anymore but if you have it, you can continue using it while you find something else.
I can see how it could be inconvenient if you have business process that relies on the tool, but if that is your critical business process, then you should not rely on third-party for it anyway, its your mistake, you screwed up. And if its not critical then its simply small inconvenience to replace with something else…
Jason Fried
on 15 Nov 12“You said it was originally about resources, but you’re adding new products which suggests the lack of updates wasn’t really about resources, but interest.”
It’s about a lot of things, not one thing in particular. Resources was one. Interest – both from us and from the market – is another. And there are plenty more.
One thing to keep in mind that the same resources can return differently depending on how you’re applying them. Maintaining something old can be a lot more expensive than building something new.
denise lee yohn
on 18 Nov 12love the analogy, jason! - i’m always advocating for companies to focus on doing a few things well - the process of pruning makes the benefit of this clear—denise lee yohn
Anonymous Coward
on 18 Nov 12“Maintaining something old can be a lot more expensive than building something new.”
TIL that Rails-projects are so hard to maintain that 37signals rather scraps them (after a time of barely keeping them alive) and/or builds them from scratch (like they did with Basecamp), than maintaining them and keeping them up to current technological standards. (Try finding a mobile interface for Highrise…)
This discussion is closed.