[🎨] The beautiful octopus problem 🐙

Hello and welcome to my printables and low-content creation series, Reader 👋

Looking for a previous issue? They are all available to read on my website.

​

Last week, I asked about your lead magnet.

Here’s what you said:

• 66% — I don’t have one yet.
• 33% — I have one, but it no longer reflects what I do.

That tells me something important.

Many of us are either starting from scratch…
or rebuilding something that quietly drifted.

Which brings me to something my AI assistant said to me this week…

“This is the classic Stéphanie move.
Building a beautiful octopus and calling it focus.”

I laughed.

Because it was painfully accurate.

​

Why we build octopuses

When uncertainty shows up, especially in creative work, we tend to respond by adding arms.

More pages.
More variations.
More bonuses.
More scenarios covered “just in case.”

We equate value with volume.
We fear underdelivering.
We try to solve every possible user situation in one product.
We think more pages automatically means more helpful.

Sometimes we are simply protecting ourselves from the quiet question:

What if this isn’t enough?

None of this is irrational.

It is human.

Especially for multipassionate creators who genuinely can see all the angles!

What happens instead

The problem is not the quality.

It is the weight.

The buyer does not know where to start.
The printable feels heavier than it should.
Completion rates drop.
Listings become harder to explain.
The product promise gets blurry.
The experience becomes bigger.
But not clearer.

​

The experiential shift

Instead of asking:

What else can I add?

Try asking:

What is the one clear experience I want someone to have?

An experiential printable is not bigger.

It is clearer.
It guides.
It reduces friction.
It creates one focused transformation.

​

Simple shifts (no overhaul required)

Instead of a 40-page “Ultimate Goal Planner,”
✅ create a 30-Day Focus Sprint with a clear start page and daily check-in ritual.

Instead of offering 8 layout variations in one bundle,
✅ choose one layout and add a short “How to Use This Planner” onboarding page.

Instead of adding 5 bonus worksheets,
✅ include one reflection page that closes the loop at the end.

Instead of a mega self-care pack,
✅ create a 7-day reset experience with a clear sequence.

Instead of “50 journaling prompts,”
✅ create a guided 5-step clarity session.

Smaller.

Clearer.

Easier to begin.

​

A small experiment for this week

Look at one of your products.

Count the arms.

Then ask yourself:

If I removed half of this,
what would still deliver the transformation?

That answer is probably the core experience.

And that is where clarity lives.

We do not need to stop being multipassionate.

We just need to stop disguising uncertainty as features.

Your ideas are not too big.

They just deserve structure.

​

​

Stéphanie​ (making simple products easier to understand and easier to use) Low-content creator & Experience Design Consultant

​

PS: If you suddenly saw one of your products as an octopus while reading this, you are not alone 🐙
Sometimes a small shift in structure changes everything.
If you want help identifying the core experience inside your product, you can always reply. I’m here 🤗

​

===

​

NOTE: I’m moving things around in the backend to make room for a new project. Can you help me spot “bad experiences” regarding my site, your members’ area, communications, or whatever? I would really appreciate your help with this! It will make it so much easier for me to fix and improve everything that needs attention. Thank you!

===

​

Disclosure: From time to time, I will include links in the emails that would include promotions for my own products or affiliate products, meaning I get paid when you buy the product. However, I only ever mention products I love and would recommend whether I was being compensated or not. Always use due diligence when buying anything and remember, what works for me may not always work for you!

Thank you so much for your support of Stephie The Happy Mom!

To make sure you keep getting these emails, please add [email protected] to your address book or whitelist us.

​

​​​​