Opinionated Software: Embracing Vision for Enhanced Productivity
Article written by
Stuart Brameld
What is Opinionated Software
Opinionated software is designed with a specific set of best practices and conventions in mind, guiding users toward a particular way of accomplishing tasks. Unlike flexible software that offers numerous ways to achieve the same goal, opinionated software provides a clear path, reducing complexity and decision fatigue.
Benefits of Opinionated Software
Increased Productivity: By limiting choices, users can focus on getting work done rather than configuring the software.
Consistency: Establishes uniformity across projects and teams, making collaboration more efficient.
Ease of Use: Simplifies the user experience by providing sensible defaults and clear workflows.
Better Performance: Constraints often lead to optimized processes and improved outcomes.
As Basecamp eloquently puts it:
"The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they're not just looking for features; they're looking for an approach. Decide what your vision is and run with it."
Ruby on Rails: Convention Over Configuration
Ruby on Rails, commonly known as Rails, is a web application framework that emphasizes convention over configuration. Founded in 2004, Rails has become a robust platform powering websites like GitHub, Shopify, and Airbnb.
By adopting sensible defaults, Rails reduces the need for extensive configuration files, allowing developers to jump straight into coding. This opinionated approach accelerates development time and fosters a unified coding style across the Rails community.
Linear: Streamlining Product Development
Linear is a project management tool designed for software teams to plan, track, and manage their work efficiently. Since its launch, Linear has gained popularity among startups and tech giants alike for its minimalist design and performance.
Jori Lallo, co-founder of Linear, emphasizes the importance of reducing unnecessary complexities:
"No one wants to waste time nitpicking the nuances of a process. We try to reduce the amount of fiddling around with processes and get you into building things."
By providing an opinionated workflow, Linear helps teams focus on product development rather than getting bogged down in tooling configurations.
Why We Adopted the Opinionated Approach
Growth Method is opinionated software. We help growth marketing teams generate revenue by architecting software with good defaults to achieve this goal. While these opinionated defaults come at the expense of flexibility, the constraints they impose result in better-performing teams.
The flexibility offered by tools like Trello, Asana, and Monday.com often leads teams to adopt an outputs-over-outcomes mindset. In contrast, our opinionated approach ensures that growth teams operate using proven methodologies.
This is the "right way" to run growth. Teams at Booking.com, HubSpot, IBM, LinkedIn, SurveyMonkey, Slack, and hundreds of other high-growth companies leverage the scientific method and experimentation. They think big and work small—so why choose software that enables you to operate any other way?
Further Reading:
Article written by
Stuart Brameld