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1-Page Summary of Friction
What is friction, and why does it matter?
Friction is a waste of time, money or effort. This force can stop the movement of two items that rub together. Friction gets in the way of efficiency and effectiveness. It can come from useless meetings, pointless procedures or obstacles for customers to overcome.
Friction is similar to the Japanese concept of muda, a term for waste. Waste could be tangible or procedural; it includes excess materials and wait time.
Friction impacts the economy by causing billions of dollars in losses every year. People abandon their shopping carts online and get frustrated with bureaucratic systems that don’t work well. These problems drive customers away, which is bad for business.
Motivation can overcome friction, but it’s not always pleasant. For example, paying taxes is better than getting in trouble with the IRS. Businesses should try to minimize friction to make transactions more convenient for customers instead of trying to motivate them.
Behavioral economics shows that people are not always logical. In fact, they can be irrational. It is important to find solutions which require the least amount of work so that you can save time and energy for other things. A good way to do this is by using technology, such as tracking down waste in your organization or eliminating it altogether.
Look to the Romans – and to Amazon – for guidance on how to remove friction.
Travel and communication were difficult before the Romans. Roads were dirt paths that twisted through challenging terrain, making travel slow and unreliable. The Romans built a quarter-million miles of roads with bridges and tunnels, which made movement easier than ever. This gave them an advantage over their enemies because they could move troops more quickly and supply their armies more efficiently.
Businesses can learn from the Romans. They were able to achieve success by reducing friction in their society through improved technology and logistics. Amazon is a great example of how removing friction, or making things easier for customers, helps differentiate them from competitors. For example, they have voice assistants that help users complete tasks more easily than ever before.
Brahmbhatt created the “X-Ray feature” that allows users to call up data about actors, on screen while watching videos on Prime Video. This helps Amazon stand out from its competition.
Don’t make customers work harder than necessary. Value their time.
Eliminate customer-facing friction. If your company’s cost cutting measures force customers to put more time into completing transactions, your business will suffer. Simplify processes and make them easier for the customer to complete. The goal is to reduce unnecessary steps that aren’t required by the transaction or interaction in question, but are there because of previous interactions with other companies’ systems.
Retail – After the civil war, rural Americans had limited options for shopping. Local merchants carried few items at high prices and mail order catalogs offered a variety of products at lower costs and greater convenience. The company that became Montgomery Ward started with a short price list which grew to 568 pages by 1891. Montgomery Ward was handling 1.5 million orders annually by the turn of the 20th century. Competitor Sears upped the ante by improving mail-order processing as well as adding stores which reduced friction for rural shoppers in addition to providing more merchandise and low prices like Walmart did later on in history.
Transportation is an important part of life. For example, people need to get from one place to another using taxis or other means of transportation. Sometimes this can be difficult because they have to wait in line at the airport and explain where they’re going before getting a taxi. People also find it frustrating when they buy a used car because the process is often confusing and tedious. However, there are companies that ease these processes by providing better services than their competitors do, such as CarMax which offers reliable service records and has no-haggle pricing policies for buying used cars so customers don’t have to negotiate prices with salespeople like at most other dealerships.
