Minimum Effort Required

Willing to plug new automation or tools in your business or your processes, one simple trick can greatly enhance the results :

Require as little effort as possible from the user.

When you ask people to adopt new habits, there will be some friction, reluctance or skepticism. People have their ways and asking for change can be a huge ask. The bigger the perceived value, the easier it is though.

But, in any case, the less is needed, the easier it will be for your new thing to get adopted.

Two examples, the 3 tools I built and use the most frequently required only 1 click on my part :

  • An email filtering system running automatically. It is set and forget, no need to adopt anything, it is there.
  • A YouTube to podcast converter. The only input required is to add the video I want to a specific playlist. One click and done.
  • A reminder to update my running shoes on Strava. I am prompted automatically on new activities.

All those could have more complicated interfaces. I also built those... but, reducing the amount of work needed to use them has been key for me to use those daily.

It will be the same for you and your users.