anthem: complexity kills

I picked this up third-hand, but MSFT's Ray Ozzie might have indirectly coined the software product marketing anthem of the 21st century when he wrote in his memo "The Internet Services Disruption" that. . .

...complexity kills. It sucks the life out of (software) developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges, and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.

I know he was writing this from the perspective of a technologist, but look at it sideways - that is, from the perspective of a marketer - and you have to agree with him, especially if I re-write it the following way. . .

...complexity kills. It sucks the life out of (software) marketers, it makes products difficult to price, package and deliver, it introduces positioning challenges, and it causes end-user and channel frustration.

Avoiding the descent into unnecessary complexity requires vigilance paired with clarity of vision and purpose. Left to our own devices, marketers - like developers - will start playing with our toys and create monsters that should never see the light of day.

(I hope Ray sent this message to the MSFT marketing team in addition to his developer team.)