Still Holds: Gall’s Law

Complex systems evolve from simpler systems. The ones that thrive do so because they’ve adapted to real-world conditions — and not because they were designed to address all possibilities. In systems thinking, this principle was best articulated by John Gall: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. I’ve long promoted Gall’s law to students and clients. It’s been hard going. We want to see products and services in their full glory ASAP. But you can only throw so much cash and person-hours at a problem. Ergo, we got the time-tested idea of a minimum viable product. (It’s no coincidence that orgs with more resources violate Gall’s law more often than scrappy startups.) But the value of an MVP isn’t just that it allows you to get something that works quickly and cheaply. Instead, the value…