Why The Chrome Strategy Always Wins

TLDR: Once you go fast, you don’t go back.

I’ve been using the term Chrome Strategy lately to refer to the design/UX strategy which Google Chrome employed of stripping back all features to create a much faster product.

Once you used Chrome, using any other browser felt like wading through mud in comparison. Microsoft is doing this now with Visual Studio Code — they’re regaining developer mindshare by building a code editor that loads and performs the essential actions faster than comparable IDEs of choice such as Atom (yes.. I know… VIM is still faster). These tools get the core job done, faster, and feel light weight in comparison.

Superhuman (https://superhuman.com/) is doing the same thing now for email. GMail feels mad sluggish in comparison.

This is a good design exercise: imagine the most bare-bones, fast version of your product. Find an app category where the products have gotten bloated and slow. Create a pared down version focused on speed above all else. Make everything else feel like:

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