Think Biscuit(s)

My grandmother has a talent. She can make two biscuits.

But her friend, Martha, has a Gift.

She can make one.

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I don’t mean one pan of biscuits.

I mean: One biscuit.

Folks who bake a whole lot or very little may not appreciate the significance of that, but I marvel over it. Especially because she doesn’t measure the ingredients. Not with utensils anyway.

As I remember it, she chatters away as she weighs out flour in the palm of her hand, then adds a pinch of this and a titch of that and a teensy taste of the other thing. She massages it together right there on the counter, and then folds the dab o’ dough into a single, simple pocket.

And here’s the thing: Martha can make just one biscuit because she spent fifteen years getting up at o-dark-thirty to make one hundred.

Yes way!

She was born on a farm in the Carolinas, if I recall, and was making morning biscuits for fieldfolk before she could reach the counter—they made her a little stool.

And by making half a million biscuits over the years, she can now offhandedly, even elegantly, make one.

And whether she makes one or one hundred or some number in between, each biscuit tastes the same kind of awesome…every time.

The Story In the Story

There are plenty of stories inside a Gift like that…stories about mastery and craft, and how a little Learning and a lot of Doing become a deep, lasting Knowing.

And then there’s the one about Scalability.

Because baking is science—as well as art—and its recipes don’t readily scale. It’s a tiny miracle that Martha can do what she does.

It’s not like making a pot of soup, which can be simmered up or watered down with decent results.

Doubling or halving the ingredients in a baking recipe is hazardous. The chemistry can go wonky, and there’s every chance the goodies won’t rise, won’t cook, or won’t taste quite right.

A recalculated recipe will yield the expected count, but there’s no guarantee of quality results.

Designing products and services is just like that, dontcha know?

Designing for Scale

Methods and objectives will vary, but three things will always be the same. Mostly.

• Time doesn’t scale. Much.
• Labor and materials do. Usually.
• Just because it can scale doesn’t mean it should. Because sometimes making less is worth more.

So.

I spent all winter and half of spring deciding what to offer and helping others do the same, and it always bubbles up: Can we earn more by doing more…or even by doing less.

Maybe the same thing is on your mind?

If it is, then I have a suggestion for that moment when the brainstorming ends and the critical work begins. Before you hunker down to the nitty gritty—

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Think biscuits.

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Photo credit: manda_wong