If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good (2010)

paul buchheit’s 2010 take on product design holds up because it cuts through the feature-creep trap that kills most projects. the core insight: shipping with 80% effort on three core things beats shipping with everything half-baked. uses ipod/iphone as exemplars of ruthless scope discipline, contrasted against the failed feature-checklist approach. notably honest about the tradeoff—simplicity means you’re not for everyone, and that’s intentional. the gmail example is particularly grounded: they consciously half-assed the address book to ship faster. worth revisiting when you catch yourself adding “just one more feature” to hit some competitor’s spec sheet.