Today I was drawing circles. Small ones. Big ones. And every size in between.
The smallest were easy to draw as almost perfect circles. A single dot, like a full stop on a page, is perfect to the naked eye. But as I drew larger circles, they became less good.
To draw a large circle well, I would need something to assist me: a bottlecap, a coffee cup or a plate. I might even need a dedicated tool like a drawing compass.
To draw a huge circle, I would need someone to hold a piece of string stable at the centre while I trace the pencil (attached to the string) around the centre to draw the circle. The more I practice, the better and more circley my circles will be.
The same is true with the projects I’m involved with. The simpler they are, the fewer moving pieces and complexity, the easier they are for my clients and me to handle well.
Complex projects can require many different tools and tens of collaborators. As our projects grow, we must accept that we’ll need to use specific tools to do a good job. With more offers, we need more landing pages, forms and automated email sequences. And as a project grows even bigger, we’ll need to get someone to support us.
So every time I start a new project, I ask myself, “What’s the simplest solution?” What’s the smallest circle that I can begin to draw, and draw well? When I’m building something new, I must resist the desire to pile on new features as soon as possible. Because it’s hard to go back to the simple approach once I’ve added complexity with features and functionality.
Ideal solutions are often simple and straight to the point (or dot).
There’s beauty in drawing small circles. And when we want to avoid drawing lop-sided and blobby circles we’ll need some dedicated tools and support.