Day 35 – Simplicity is the Strategy

By Day 35, we found ourselves coming back to one of the earliest principles we discussed when SWAIN was just an idea: simplicity. Not just in terms of UI or onboarding, but as a guiding strategy across everything — process, communication, delivery and decision-making.

This day reinforced that message in more ways than one. Internally, we reviewed several upcoming features and integrations. We found ourselves on the edge of overcomplicating things. Adding toggles, options, branching logic — all things that, while powerful, threatened to add confusion. The more we looked at it, the more obvious it became that simplicity was not the easy choice. It was the brave one.

To be useful, SWAIN needs to be clear. It needs to behave in expected ways. It needs to remove steps, not create new ones. What we shared publicly that day was a reflection of a deeper internal commitment: that we would keep the product focused, grounded and accessible, even as its capabilities expanded.

Simplicity also means knowing when to say no. This was one of those inflection points where we had to deliberately hold back from building more, so we could protect what was already working.

Key takeaway

Complexity hides behind the illusion of control. Real impact comes from the courage to keep things simple.