Seek to simplify

Seek to simplify

When I work with my clients on system selection or implementation, one of the things I love to praise them for is simple business rules. When they tell me things like "Our registration is simple; member or non-member, early-bird pricing, that's it," I can barely contain my glee!

Too often we're our own worst enemy when it comes to data management. Because we're making rules that are too hard to follow.

My recommendation: Seek to simplify.

Look at your rules for membership joins and renewals. Are they easy enough for a child to understand? Or do you have dozens of different options?

What about event registration? Is it as simple as the example above (e.g., member/non-member) or do you have a dozen different prices and options?

A famous social science experiment (the "Jam experiment") back in 2000 demonstrated the paradox of choice: give humans too many choices and they'll actually choose nothing (i.e., choose not to buy). The corollary to this experiment is that managing too many choices exponentially increases the difficulty of managing the data. Buyers choose less and the data created is harder to manage! It's a lose-lose.

Seek to simplify!

Wes's Wednesday Wisdom Archives

Baby Steps

March 21, 2019

One of the keys to developing good data management habits is to be aware of […]

Success Requires Discipline

March 14, 2019

When it comes to data management, most of us know what to do; we just don’t […]

Take a moment to be grateful

March 7, 2019

Because we’re so focused on always improving what we have now, it’s easy to overlook […]

KPIs and Dashboards

February 28, 2019

I saw DJ Muller from MemberClicks speak on KPIs (key performance indicators). In his session […]

Documenting Process is Critical

February 22, 2019

When it comes to managing data successfully, process is critical. For example, a client of […]

Motion vs. Action

February 14, 2019

In James Clear’s book Atomic Habits (I recommend it!), he discusses the concept of motion vs. action. […]

Are You Answering Your Calls?

February 7, 2019

I’ve written about this before, but apparently I have to keep repeating it. If you’ve […]

Who do you trust?

January 31, 2019

Who Do You Trust I was reading an article recently about Warren Buffet’s “rules” for […]

Set benchmarks to measure progress

January 24, 2019

It’s impossible to measure progress if you don’t know your starting point. This sounds axiomatic, […]

You’ll make incorrect decisions. Acknowledge them and fix it.

January 17, 2019

A client of mine recently wrote the following to me: “It’s so hard to set […]

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top