You find an app that looks simpler or costs less. You try it, like it, then go back to the old one because moving your work feels like another project.
In my software company I spent three months creating a complicated dashboard because many free users kept asking for it. I thought it would get them to finally pay for the service.
When we released the dashboard very few of them actually upgraded. The people who paid us said the new look was too busy and that it made their daily work slower.
Free users want a tool to do everything because they do not want to pay for programs. Customers who pay want your tool to do one thing really well and fast.
We started not paying attention to feature requests unless they came from a customer who was paying. We added a label in our support messages so we could quickly see if a suggestion was linked to money.
In the early days everything was simple talk to users fix bugs and ship code fast.
Now that we're bigger every tiny change impacts support, tech maintenance and ten different opinions. Suddenly basic decisions take weeks to get through.
How do you stop growth from making your whole process slow and complicated?
