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The Anti-Feature Principle
More buttons = more confusion
Justin Glover
September 10, 2025
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Today’s Perspective Shift
From: “More features = more value”
To: “Fewer features = deeper usage”
Theme for the Quarter: Tools With Soul
Theme for the Week: Simplicity as Sophistication
Quote of the Week:
“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
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✨ In Today’s Episode:
The anti-feature mindset that creates obsessed users
A tale of two tools: one bloated, one beloved
A product audit framework for elegant simplicity
A whiteboard tool that embodies subtractive design
The Anti-Feature Principle
More buttons = more confusion
🧠 ONE Smart Idea
The more features you offer, the less your users explore.
Founders often believe complexity = value.
But what if the opposite is true?
The tools people love (not just tolerate) tend to share one trait:
They do fewer things. But they do them extremely well.
This is what I call the Anti-Feature Principle:
If your product, process, or service becomes “everything,” it becomes nothing specific to the person using it.
📖 Story Spark
Notion vs. Basecamp vs. Everyone Else
Notion is powerful—but to many, it’s paralyzing.
Basecamp? It keeps things simple on purpose—and people stick with it for years.
Meanwhile, the AI tool graveyard is littered with overbuilt dashboards and underused features.
One founder I coached had built 14 internal features into his service.
Clients used… three.
When we cut the fat and doubled down on the core 3, his churn dropped 40% and client referrals spiked.
Why?
Because simplicity builds trust. Complexity breaks it.
⚙️ Tactical Application:
Subtractive Design Thinking
Here’s how to simplify your offer or tool—without dumbing it down.
Step 1 – Highlight what people actually use
Ask: “What do our best clients use consistently?”
Cut the rest to experimental tier or archive
Step 2 – Map out what causes hesitation
Long onboarding? Too many choices? Confusing settings?
Highlight friction points and ask: Does this spark clarity or confusion?
Step 3 – Design for the “one clear action”
Make your core promise frictionless
Build around that, not around hypotheticals
The best tools don’t try to be everything. They try to be obvious.
🔦 Tool Spotlight: Whimsical
Whimsical is a tool I keep returning to.
Why? It lets you think visually, without ever feeling like you’re “learning a new system.”
Wireframes, flowcharts, docsall clean, fast, and non-bloated
Great for mapping service offers or product flows
No bells and whistles. Just clarity, by design.
Use it as your Anti-Feature sandbox.
🧭 Intelligent Elevation
We often obsess over adding…tools, features, ideas.
But elite builders?
They obsess over removing friction until what remains is inevitable.
Simplicity is not the absence of ambition.
It’s the refinement of direction.
Your users don’t want more power.
They want more clarity about where to apply it.
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💬 Closing Insight
Subtractive design isn’t boring.
It’s bold.
And bold builders don’t try to please everyone.
They design for the ones who stay.
Don’t scale options. Scale clarity.
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AiScaleTips is your founder clarity compass.
Most scale with chaos. You scale by design.
— Justin Glover
