In an diligence obsessed with characteristic bloat , Ishaan Agarwal stands apart . While most product managers race to add capabilities , Agarwal has construct his career on a counterintuitive principle : decrease .
“ The serious products I ’ve mold on are the I that rigorously dispatch obstacles rather than adding capability , ” says Agarwal , whose product direction career sweep Microsoft , Brex , and now Square .
The Foundation for Thinking Differently
This counterintuitive attack did n’t materialize from slight air . Agarwal ’s unusual educational path — completing both bachelor ’s and lord ’s degrees in computer science at Brown University in just four years — reflects an former natural endowment for efficiency . But the technical foundation alone does n’t explain his mathematical product philosophy .
“ Computer science teach me how thing work , ” he say , “ but my economics and intent courses taught me why they call for to be built in the first place . ” This interdisciplinary backcloth , including advanced industrial design family at the Rhode Island School of Design , cultivated a linear perspective that can not only architect complex systems but also understand the humans who must navigate them .
His prison term in Brown ’s Human - Computer Interaction lab cement this approach . Under Professor Jeff Huang , Agarwal spent two year canvass how people actually use technology , not how company retrieve they should . Those enquiry determination would afterward inform his professional mission : to create technology so visceral it fundamentally disappears .
The Facebook Laboratory
Many production manager step by step transition into the role from other positions . Agarwal took a more direct itinerary , creating a unparalleled learning opportunity during his summertime internship at Facebook ( now Meta ) .
“ During my first workweek , I call for if I could shadow the product squad while meet my engineering obligation , ” he recall . This innovative arrangement created a worthful research lab status — observing product strategy development by day , implementing those ideas in code by night .
The experience divulge an authoritative insight about the product development process . “ In product meetings , team would aline on an elegant visual sensation , ” Agarwal says . “ Then as implementation advance , that vision would naturally evolve to accommodate technical considerations , arrangement architecture , and delivery timeline . ”
Rather than seeing this as a challenge , Agarwal recognized an chance — to serve as an effective translator between product aspirations and technical realities . This became his professional foreign mission : building bridgework between what users need and what technology can fork over .
Microsoft’s Small Business Revelation
The existent testing earth for Agarwal ’s simplification philosophical system came at Microsoft , where he joined the team behind the Microsoft 365 Admin Center . For the uninitiated , this is the ascendence panel where businesses manage their Office , Teams , Outlook , and other Microsoft subscription — a critical piece of substructure .
Originally design for collective IT departments , the Admin Center had evolved into a sprawl interface that made double-dyed common sense to its creators but foil many of its small clientele exploiter who lacked a proficient background signal but nonetheless need to manage their digital tools .
“ The team interviewed bread maker , florist shop , vicinity accountants — multitude who just wanted to tot a novel employee to Teams or curb when their subscription renewed — getting all lost , ” Agarwal explains . “ They did n’t wish about tenant management or innovative security policy . They just needed to fulfill basic tasks without a information processing system science degree . ”
Agarwal ’s team present the authoritative production coach ’s dilemma : how to swear out wildly different user segments with the same intersection . Their solution was elegant — they created a simplified view that dramatically reduced functionality but made common task immediately obvious .
“ The answer was make two products in one , ” he says . “ king users could still access every conceivable alternative , but most small businesses could now accomplish most of their indigence through an interface with uncomplicated pick in human language rather than proficient jargon . ”
The metrics validated his approach dramatically . Net Promoter Score for small business drug user increased dramatically , and monthly active users grew to millions within a class . Most tellingly , livelihood call decreased — the certain house that a intersection is doing its job without human intervention .
The Metrics That Actually Matter
This lead to Agarwal ’s more provocative perspective — that most product squad optimise for the wrong metrics entirely .
“ The manufacture obsess over meshing — time spend , clicks , interaction , ” he says . “ But for public utility company software , those metric unit bespeak failure . If someone demand to expend 20 hour figuring out how to tot up a user to their story , that ’s high fight but terrible design . ”
Instead , Agarwal advocates for what he calls “ disappearance metrics ” — measuring of how promptly and invisibly software accomplishes its design . How few mouse click did a task want ? How quickly did users fill in their objective ? Did they demand documentation ?
Square and the Restaurant Renaissance
This ism has feel its most complete expression in Agarwal ’s current role at Square , where he leads product enterprisingness for food and beverage technology . Few industries better instance the tenseness between complex operations and meter - thirst operators than food service .
“ When the software is built right , the engineering almost disappears , ” he say . “ Chefs can focus on their craft rather than deciphering complicated port or hunt for information . That ’s the ultimate success — construction tools so intuitive they become much invisible . ”
The Ultimate Product Philosophy
This land us to Agarwal ’s fundamental dissertation : that great engineering science should eventually make itself invisible .
“ bully utility software should be like electricity , ” he argues . “ You do n’t guess about the complex base delivering power to your exit . You just punch in your machine and it works . Software should aspire for that same invisibility . ”
This perspective challenge the established wiseness of the tech manufacture , where feature article expansion and increase complexity are often seen as inevitable . Agarwal believes the software manufacture is witnessing the early degree of a pendulum swing back toward radical simplicity .
“ The technical school manufacture is approaching a impregnation point with digital complexness , ” he suggests . “ Every minute someone spends wrestling with needlessly complex software is a mo stolen from their genuine purpose — escape their business , serving their client , or make something meaningful , ” he suppose . “ That ’s time they never get back . ”
As applied science accelerates , perhaps the most worthful product leaders wo n’t be those who construct the most impressive characteristic , but those who , like Agarwal , devote themselves to produce technology disappear — leaving behind only the solution , never the complexness .
