That 80/20 idea is one of the worst startup killers I know. If you were my boss I'd be putting on my parachute and heading for the airstairs and expecting to see a plume of smoke wherever you impact.
You don't have to do 100% of what anybody might want, but you have to accomplish 100% of a minimal viable product and some of that is grindy and unglamorous. People who set out to do the easy 80% just don't get to the MVP.
> If you were my boss I'd be putting on my parachute and heading for the airstairs and expecting to see a plume of smoke wherever you impact.
(Ouch!)
You raise an interesting point. Perhaps, without a large amount of "bin #2" work, it's impossible for "bin #1" work to really take off. I've experienced this firsthand, and end up always doing a lot of "bin #2". But I wonder how much better it could be if I dared to focus even further. Or if it's at all possible and I'm just risking it too much.
Do you have any examples of the 80/20 idea actually killing a startup? I'm genuinely interested.
You don't have to do 100% of what anybody might want, but you have to accomplish 100% of a minimal viable product and some of that is grindy and unglamorous. People who set out to do the easy 80% just don't get to the MVP.
I like Covey's quadrant model
https://purdue.edu/asc/handouts_pdf/Coveys%204%20Quadrants.p...
my take is 80/20 managers inevitably let "important but not urgent" work be undone. See also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product