What is the 80/20 Rule (a.k.a Pareto Principle) and How to use it effectively?
By: Piyush Kumar
Tags: Productivity, 80 20 Rule, First Post, Design, Business

Whether you’re an Entrepreneur, a content creator, a product developer or just a regular guy obsessed with changing his/her life, you may have heard of a rule called 80/20 Rule. (a.k.a Pareto Principle).

If not, you’re going to learn about this rule which can step up your game in multiple ways if applied correctly.

So, What is the 80/20 Rule?

Discovered in 1896, the 80/20 Rule or Pareto Principle is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who observed that approximately 80% of the wealth in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. The principle states that

“Roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.”

which means that roughly 80% of the result comes from 20% of the efforts. You may find it strange but,

Examples:

Concerning Business:

80% of the sales come from 20% of the clients.

20% of the salesmen execute 80% of the sales.

Concerning Product:

80% of the errors are caused by 20% of the bugs.

20% of the features of an app are used 80% of the time.

20% of the products are sold 80% of the time.

Concerning Content:

80% of the engagement comes from 20% of your followers.

20% of your content brings 80% of the engagement.

Using 80/20 Effectively.

80/20 Rule is all about putting your efforts and resources in the right direction to get maximum results.

Let’s see how we can bring in the 80/20 rule live.

In Business

By the above examples, we know that roughly 20% of the products are sold 80% of the time. So, instead of focusing our effort and resources on 80% of the products which brings little to no value to the table, we should focus more on that 20 % of the products which make a difference. In Product Development

Whether it’s a startup, an app, a website, everything is a product. Applying the 80/20 rule here we see that 20% of the features are used 80% of the time. So, if we focus more on just 20% features which solve a problem, we can solve it in a much better way. In Design

I see design as making interactions to simplify one’s life. Almost all the companies out there use the 80/20 rule to give us a simple yet impressive experience. Let’s take a look at an example.

While shopping in an e-commerce store, 80% of the time our current shipping address stays the same as our last shipping address or our home address. So, most of the e-commerce stores save our last shipping address or our home address in their databases to make our shopping experience more simple.

From a simple drop-down to a complex flight ticket booking website, we can use the 80/20 rule to simplify the experience of the users. In Content

20% of your content is viewed or appreciated 80% of the time. Whether it’s an Instagram post or a Youtube video or even a medium blog, we can easily figure out the type of content which works for us and our audience by either going through the stats or just watching the number of claps we received on a particular post. After you’ve figured out your niche, just be consistent and you’ll see the magic happening.

Summarizing it.

80/20 rule is a rule to simplify things, simplify the product, simplify business, simplify the experience, etc. It helps us identify the areas to focus on and put our effort into. It can save us a lot of time and resources if used correctly. This is how I see the 80/20 Rule.

This is my first blog, so do share your thoughts with me. I am Piyush, a passionate designer, and learner from India. You can hit me up on Instagram at gooduidesign. Let’s connect and grow together.