Focus Your Product Strategy by Saying 'No' to Good Ideas

In any project or business, the hardest discipline isn’t coming up with more ideas—it’s choosing a few things to do really well and declining the rest, even when they’re good. Think about times when you took on too much: the club that tried adding more activities than it could organize, or that time you offered to help five friends at once and burned out. The art of focus means saying 'no,' again and again, to anything that distracts from what matters most.

Take a cue from top product teams who routinely gather all the features they could build, then go through heated debates about which ones are essential, which add competitive value, and what might simply delight users. A big whiteboard might get crammed with sticky notes, each representing cool ideas. Then, like master editors, they cut away. 'Which three points do we want to OWN?' someone asks. They cross out the rest, even features users have actually requested or that the team feels personally excited about.

The result isn’t a perfect plan, but one that’s sharper, lighter, and more likely to create a product that stands out. The wisdom of great strategy isn’t accepting more, but excelling at what you choose. As Steve Jobs said, 'Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.'

Behavioral research shows we’re naturally loss averse and hate leaving opportunity on the table. Yet focus amplifies results—it compounds; scattered efforts simply… scatter.

Take an hour this week to map out every idea, request, or feature you’re currently considering—don’t filter, just dump them all out. Use the Kano model to assign each to must-haves, performance benefits, and delighters, then bravely mark non-essentials as 'parking lot' or 'not pursuing now.' Make your top three priorities clear and visible. Whenever new opportunities show up, revisit your commitments and test for alignment first. Your projects—and sanity—will benefit.