I’ve recently started using an app called TeuxDeux to help me plan my work for the week. It’s a brilliantly simple tool. The TeuxDeux website includes a /Purpose that outlines the team’s motivation for building the product and their vision for the future.
- Simple enough to compete with a piece of paper.
- Beautiful enough that we wouldn’t mind (and might even enjoy) looking at it all day.
The purpose of the app is perfectly captured in these two short sentences.
Build it simple. Build it beautiful.
The team’s vision for the future is equally inspiring:
If you like what you see with TeuxDeux (for example, its sparse, lovely design or intuitive personal timeline), you can take comfort in the fact that we will stay true to what it stands for today. Ten years from now”‰”””‰when we’ve finally domesticated koala bears and everyone can have one as a pet”‰”””‰TeuxDeux will still be chugging along, making your day-to-day just a little bit brighter.
On that note, why the heck does every app need to change all the time? Can’t something on the Web be more or less finished?
We think so.
The thing I love most about this vision is that there’s no mention of big feature developments, third-party integrations, or building a ‘platform’. The team behind TeuxDeux recognise that they’ve built a product that solves the problem they set out to tackle. They’ve resisted the urge to tinker.
It’s okay to call a product finished. You don’t have to be constantly changing things in order to grow your product.
By all means maintain your products, but don’t build more features just to create the illusion of progress in an attempt to attract more users. Build something useful and your customer base will grow with time.