Skip to content
Home » KISS Principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) – Best Business Guide (2022)

KISS Principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) – Best Business Guide (2022)

  • by
People sleeping through your PowerPoint presentation? Apply the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle to your PPT presentation and be a champ Product Manager.

People sleeping through your PowerPoint presentation? Apply the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle to your PPT presentation and be a champ Product Manager.

The KISS principle in software development is a necessity. Amongst software design principles, this is one of the most sold design principles. Even for communication in general, the best is to keep it short and simple communication. By the way, that is another version of the KISS full form.

As a Product Manager, you will be making presentations practically everyday. You will get so used to making PPTs, it will be like writing an email.

At the same time, nobody wants to spend hours making a beautiful PPT Presentation, only to be told by their boss that “Why don’t you make these additional changes? We should then be good to go.” What a lie.

And you know what, nobody likes sitting through boring PPT Presentations, no matter how beautiful the font.

People sleeping through your PowerPoint presentation? Apply the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle to your PPT presentation and be a champ Product Manager.

KISS Principle History

The widely used KISS principle did not originate in an MBA classroom.

It also was not coined by some hot shot business tycoon.

This simple term has its origins in the US Navy. The idea was to design things that were not over complicated.

The widely used KISS principle did not originate in an MBA classroom.

The idea was to not introduce complexity just for the sake of it.

If simplicity is possible to achieve an outcome, then complexity should not be unnecessarily introduced.

Communication Skills – KISS Principle

There is no substitute to crystal clear communication.

This is especially important for a Product Manager.

The success and the failure of a product are both dependent on the product team.

The product team is responsible for clearly communicating with all stakeholders.

If there is a delay in the project timelines, then the customers or the business team need to be communicated accordingly.

Learn how to create an efficient customer feedback loop.

It is important to set the right expectations.

If there is a change in requirements, the development team needs to be communicated accordingly.

But, in all of these communications, the KISS principle needs to be applied.

KISS Keep It Simple Stupid Principle

So, what is KISS? You need to keep it simple, stupid.

I call it the THINK philosophy.

  • T – Time
  • H – Honesty
  • I – Intuition
  • N – Noise
  • K – KISS (you already know what that means)

Let me go over the above points one by one. This is at the heart of the KISS principle for your PPT. This will help you communicate like a boss Product Manager.

These principles are also necessary when creating the following product management documents –

Time

Don’t spend too much time on your PPT. At the same time, don’t spend too little time on your PPT.

The time spent on your PPT should be proportional to the expected outcome. If your PPT is only to your immediate boss, you shouldn’t need to spend more than a few hours.

However, if you are presenting a new idea to your company’s entire leadership team, you would want to spend a week working on your PPT.

Check out the top leadership skills.

Remember a daily stand up meeting. It needs to be kept simple and short. The same goes for your presentations.

Remember a daily stand up meeting. It needs to be kept simple and short. The same goes for your presentations.
Daily Standup Meetings are always short.

And remember, time spent on your PPT also depends on your level in the company. If you are a junior Product Owner, you are expected to put in more time as opposed a senior Product Manager.

I hope the difference between Product Manager and Product Owner is clear to you.

Honesty

Be honest with yourself, and you will be honest will your presentation.

What is it that you really want to convey? Keep the fluff out, and focus on the facts. If you are getting hazy on the facts, open your Jira dashboard.

Focus on what your audience needs to know, not on what they should know. This clarity is at the heart of the top 15 benefits of Kanban.

Honesty is a must have skill not only in product management and project management, but also in the critical area of team management.

Check out the top team management skills.

Intuition

If your gut feeling tells you to add in an image – do it. People tend to remember visuals better than text. Intuition is one skill that makes Elon Musk a brilliant Product Manager.

You need to make sure your audience feels connected with your PPT. For that to happen, you need to trust your intuition.

Intuition is also at the heart of being Agile. Agile Methodology depends a lot on your experience and your judgement. Intuition will also help you become Product Agnostic.

Intuition is a key factor when it comes to analyzing a product manager’s ability to get the job done.

But, what does a product manager do? Check out the roles and responsibilities of a product manager.

Noise

Keep the noise out! I cannot emphasise this enough.

This becomes all the more important as you go up the career ladder.

Check out the product management career path at the top tech companies.

Far too many Product Managers make the mistake of overloading their presentations with a laundry list of the tasks and accomplishments

Instead, you need to focus on what is important for your audience. If you were your presentation’s audience, what would you care about? Think about it (and don’t think like a Project Manager).

Keeping the noise out also means keeping the text to a minimum, keeping the colours to a minimum and keeping the animations to zero! Come up with a strategy (you can also check out Google’s OKR strategy).

Be visual with your presentation, connect with your audience using pictures, graphs and charts.

Be visual with your presentation, connect with your audience using pictures, graphs and charts. Your audience will thank you for cutting out that slide with 10 bullet points. These principles will help you become a better product manager during difficult times.

Also, I recommend this piece on how to give a killer presentation.

KISS Principle – Keep It Simple

Finally, even after you apply the KISS principle to your PPT, I just want to say this – You need to live your presentation. You need to own the stage. You are there to make an impact, make sure you make one. One of my favourite keep it simple quotes –

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

So, remember to keep it short and simple. For creating anything, this is one of your most solid principles.

Bonus – Learn how to spot an opportunity like Warren Buffett!

If you see great presentations from masterful presenters like Steve Jobs, you will notice the use of minimalism.

This is not to say that the presentations were not grand.

Far from, Apple presentations are known for their immense grandeur.

But, nobody sees endless bullet points during these presentations.

Apple’s presentations are very visual, they seek to immerse you into the graphic details of Apple products. It is almost like watching an IMAX movie.

The focus of the presentation is always on the image or the video that is being shown to the audience. There is almost no text. The audience needs to get a visual feel of the product, they don’t need to read a thesis report on it.

Follow me on Twitter for the latest updates.

Do subscribe to my monthly newsletters on how to become a winning Product Manager.