Shiny object syndrome is how great products become bloated, slow, and confusing. Here’s how Ryan Johnson, CPO at CallRail, 10x’ed revenue without falling victim. 👇
Over the years, CallRail has undergone massive growth. Part of the secret, though, has been a dogged focus on what really matters: simplicity, speed, and customer satisfaction. Here’s Ryan’s antidote to avoid “shiny object syndrome” and help product teams scale without losing their edge.👇
Check out the full LaunchPod episode with Ryan here:
🚨 Don’t chase tools, chase value
“There’s always a new analytics or AI tool, but switching costs are real. You don’t need the shiniest tool, you need the right one.”
Instead of chasing trends, Ryan helps teams ask: Does this tool or idea make our core experience better?
At CallRail, that mindset helped the team resist distractions and stay focused on what customers actually need, not what’s trendy.
🧠 Innovate from insight, not instinct
Use customer behavior and support data to prioritize features that matter.
When CallRail noticed performance issues with a core page, they realized users needed faster access to high-level insights. So, they built a new dashboard from scratch in record time:
“We noticed really quickly, our customers [...] needed more phone numbers [...] and now we put it in front of eyes in the right place.”
The result? Better performance, happier users, and a measurable spike in customers taking action on key alerts.
⏱ Set deadlines for testing new ideas
Ryan’s rule: Time-box new ideas. If they’re not delivering value by that deadline, kill them.
“We had this North Star of a magical dashboard… but now we had this forcing function: what can we do in 45 days?”
📊Avoid data chaos: Prioritize features that add value without bloating UX
CallRail serves 200K+ users, from solo plumbers to large marketing agencies. As bigger customers came on board, they started asking for more advanced reporting and customization.
But more features aren’t always better.
“Our biggest customers were asking for more customization — but we had to balance that with keeping things intuitive. More isn’t always better.”
Instead of bloating the UI, the team built their new dashboard to surface the most relevant insights that could be used across the board.
🛠️ Align on tools or risk drowning in noise
Serving so many users and teams, data chaos was a real risk at CallRail.
“We’ve all been there where you ask the same question from three teams and they give you three answers.”
Ryan’s fix: Get cross-functional agreement on the tools and frameworks everyone uses and how data should be interpreted.
The fastest way to lose your edge? Saying yes to everything.
Good product leaders know:
Volume doesn’t equal value
Listening is better than guessing
Ease of use beats feature creep every time