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Doechii wrote her Grammy award winning album in 30 days. She set herself a 30-day timer and said, ‘I will not tweak anything, after 30 days, it’s done’.
If you aren’t familiar with Doechii, she’s a 26-year-old American rapper who achieved three Grammy nominations in 2025 and won Best Rap Album – the third woman to ever win in this category. She also delivered an iconic live performance on the night catapulting her further into popular culture and earning her recognition as a true standout artist (if you haven’t seen it, watch it immediately).
Doechii’s approach highlights the power of restriction and constraint in creativity. No last-minute tweaks, no looping in additional stakeholders for another opinion, no doubting that what you’ve created is good enough, simply trusting the process and the quality of your work. And the payoff sure was huge.
In a world of constant overwhelm, simplification is beautiful.
It made me think about The Jam Experiment by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper in 2000, a psychological study that demonstrated how having too many choices can reduce engagement and satisfaction. More options aren’t always better.
The Experiment
Researchers set up a jam tasting booth in a gourmet supermarket and offered a discount coupon after tasting. One day, the table had 24 flavours, and on another day only 6 flavours.
The Results
60% of shoppers stopped at the booth with 24 flavours, which dropped to 40% when there were only 6 flavours. However, only 3% of those who saw 24 flavours went on to purchase jam, compared with 30% of those who saw 6 flavours.
This study demonstrated that while more choices attracted more attention, fewer choices led to higher conversion rates. Satisfaction increases when decisions feel simpler.
So how can we apply this thinking to creating an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and employer brand?
- Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, invest in identifying, and truly understanding your key strengths and differentiators, and then communicate them clearly and concisely.
- Remove unnecessary complexity in your employer brand communications – too many messages confuse candidates resulting in disengagement and failure to take-action.
- If in doubt keep it simple. If your proposition needs explaining it’s too complicated.
- Design for your audience. User Experience (UX) is important, is your creative work mobile friendly and does your career website have a clear navigation menu (remember, 6 jam flavours converted more than 24 flavours)?
- Set yourself a deadline and stick to it no matter what. No last-minute tweaks. Done is better than perfect.
- Trust your insights and expertise and only involve stakeholders who are critical to the success of the project. You don’t need just one more opinion – you’ve got this.
Of course, all of this is easier said than done, but if Doechii can write a Grammy award winning album in 30 days, simplifying your EVP can’t be out of reach.
