Simplify

Complexity is the enemy of scale, speed, and customer experience. Leaders are fanatical about simplifying what they touch.

Back to the universal principles

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

Situation	Under	Just Right	Over
Adding a feature	Adds it beside the old path and leaves both.	Adds it only if it replaces a harder path, and removes that path.	Removes the old path before the new one can do the job the customer already does.
A setting nobody needs	Ships the setting so you do not have to choose a default.	Picks the default that fits almost everyone and deletes the setting.	Deletes a setting a real group depends on, and calls the deletion simplicity.
A name that needs a paragraph	Adds a glossary entry and keeps the name.	Renames it to what a new person would guess, and updates the one place people look.	Renames it every month in the name of clarity, and nobody can find the old notes.
Five steps that could be two	Optimizes each step and leaves the count alone.	Cuts the path to the two steps that change the outcome.	Collapses the path into one step that hides a decision the person needed to make.
Complexity you did not add	Walks past a tangled path because you did not create it.	Simplifies the part you are touching anyway, and leaves a note on the rest.	Rewrites the whole area while you were only there to change one thing.
Simple for you, worse for the customer	Makes the internal workflow tidy and adds steps for the customer.	Judges simplicity by the customer's path, including the support burden it creates.	Strips the product until it is simple and no longer does the job.

Further reading

Sources and essays on this principle.

Coupang Leadership Principles
The published wording of this principle.
coupang.jobs