Fight for Simplicity

Simplicity is worth fighting for—and it requires fighting for

Dharmesh Shah
Zigging vs. zagging: How HubSpot built a $30B company

Fight for Simplicity

"Simplicity is worth fighting for. That's thing number one. But the other one is that it requires fighting for. It does not happen, and it will be a fight, because the universe is working against you." - Dharmesh Shah

What It Is

Fight for Simplicity is HubSpot's cultural principle that explicitly acknowledges simplicity doesn't happen naturally—it requires active, continuous effort. The phrase captures two truths: simplicity matters enough to fight for, AND achieving it requires a fight.

This framework operationalizes the battle against entropy (the Second Law of Business) through practical mechanisms and systems that constrain complexity.

How It Works

The "One In, One Out" Product Rule

In HubSpot's early years, every time you added what they called a "knob or dial" (a feature), you had to remove one somewhere else. It's a coarse measurement—not every checkbox is equivalent—but it's better than no constraint. The rule forces teams to think about cumulative complexity.

Third-Order Thinking on Features

Most people evaluate features based on:

  • First-order: Cost of implementation
  • Second-order: Maintenance cost over time

But the most important cost is third-order: the dimensional complexity added to the business. When you go from product one to product two:

  • Every engineer hire requires deciding which product they work on
  • Every marketing campaign requires allocation between products
  • Every metric chart now needs to be sliced by product
  • Every decision gains a new dimension

This dimensional complexity is rarely planned for but always arrives.

Binary Over Gradated Decisions

"Everything or nothing is much simpler." HubSpot's transparency policy: everyone sees all information, period. This eliminates endless debates about who gets access to what. When deciding between options, prefer binary choices that eliminate ongoing judgment calls.

How to Apply It

  1. Audit complexity additions - For any new feature, product, or process, explicitly ask: "What dimensional complexity does this add to every future decision?"

  2. Implement constraints - Build systems with guardrails, not just cultural values. "A reasonably well-done system will outbeat any other mechanism."

  3. Start simple, scale complexity only when broken - Keep the simple approach until it demonstrably fails. HubSpot's seat lottery worked for hundreds of people.

  4. Challenge complexity defaults - The conventional approach often includes unnecessary complexity. Test if simpler works. (Can we have 1,000 insiders? Turns out, yes.)

  5. Make simplicity cultural - State it explicitly as a value. Talk about it at all-hands. Call out when complexity is sneaking in.

When to Use It

  • Product planning and roadmap discussions
  • Process design and policy creation
  • Organization design decisions
  • Any situation where "let's just add one more thing" pressure exists
  • When things feel slow or bureaucratic

Source

  • Guest: Dharmesh Shah
  • Episode: "Zigging vs. zagging: How HubSpot built a $30B company"
  • Key Discussion: (00:40:28) - Practical examples of fighting for simplicity at HubSpot
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

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