Friction is anything that makes it harder to for us to get something done – buy a product or use a service, do our jobs, learn something, enjoy ourselves.
There will always be friction – but poor design and execution and a lack of clarity about what things are for make it worse than it needs to be. For example:
- unhelpful bureaucracy
- long waiting times
- extra travel
- clunky interfaces
- running things in series when they could be run in parallel
- running things in parallel badly (e.g. grinding coffee and getting the milk out of the fridge before starting the kettle boiling)
- Unnecessary approvals
- lack of information (including opaque information) about what’s available, when and how, how much it costs, and other requirements
- Dispersed or contradictory information
- excessive security or controls compared to the risk (and always if poorly executed)
- choke-points in buildings, single-checkouts in busy supermarkets
- A lack of standards or consistency (think of Wi-Fi, electrical voltage, computer connections, weights and measures)