By Nazreen Daud, Malay web consultant and marketer in Singapore, founder of Mulacan · Originally shared on LinkedIn, 30 September 2026
The short answer: we're obsessed with more: more leads, more traffic, more content, more tools. After 7+ years in business, I'm starting to think the better KPI is efficiency: a bigger result with fewer moving parts. Before chasing another KPI, zoom out. Before adding another tool, find the bottleneck. Before doing more, ask whether more is even necessary.
Where did this idea come from?
I had this thought somewhere between Chengdu and Xi'an.
I was on the high-speed train, laptop open, getting some work done while listening to a podcast about The Molecule of More. One idea stuck with me: we're wired to want more.
And in business, we really are obsessed with more. More leads. More traffic. More clients. More content. More features.
Why is "more" such a tempting KPI?
Quantity is an easy way to justify progress. If the numbers are going up, we assume we're moving forward.
But after 7+ years in business, I'm starting to question that. More leads don't help if your follow-up can't handle them. More traffic doesn't help if your website doesn't convert. More tools don't help if nobody owns them.
What if efficiency is the better KPI?
Here's what I mean by efficiency:
| Chasing "more" | Chasing efficiency |
|---|---|
| Adding five new strategies | Finding one blind spot |
| Throwing more budget at a campaign | Fixing what's broken first |
| Adding another tool | Removing a hand-off that keeps failing |
| Measuring volume | Measuring results per unit of effort |
| Growing the to-do list | Getting a bigger result with fewer moving parts |
How can AI help you find what to remove?
This is where AI has become incredibly useful for me.
AI gives us access to a huge bank of patterns, failures, case studies and lessons. Used properly, it can help us challenge a decision before we spend time and money learning the painful version ourselves.
But there's still a human part. You need the patience to ask good questions.
Five questions to find your real bottleneck
- Why isn't this working?
- Where is the real bottleneck?
- What am I missing here?
- What can I remove first?
- What mistakes already exist to study?
Ask them about your marketing, your website, your sales process or your systems. Ask them out loud, and ask them to an AI tool too. The answers are often less glamorous than "add more", and much more useful.
Sometimes the answer isn't add more. Sometimes it's: do less, understand more, execute better.
What I'm implementing
That train ride gave me something I can implement immediately:
- Before chasing another KPI, zoom out.
- Before adding another tool, find the bottleneck.
- Before doing more, ask whether more is even necessary.
Funny enough, this thinking is also influencing something I'm currently brewing with Mulacan. Too early to share.
Start with a clearer offer
One of the simplest places to "do less, better" is your offer. If your offer is fuzzy, every other marketing effort has to work harder. That's why I made a free Offer Generator to help you sharpen it.
Try the free Offer Generator, or book a call with me if you'd like help finding the bottleneck in your business.
Growth isn't always about adding more. Sometimes your biggest growth opportunity is finding what you can remove.
FAQ
What does "efficiency as a KPI" mean for a small business? It means measuring how much result you get for the effort, money and tools you put in, rather than only counting volume. A good example is fixing one broken step in your enquiry process instead of buying more traffic that leaks out the same way.
How do I find the bottleneck in my business? Ask: why isn't this working, where is the real bottleneck, what am I missing, what can I remove first, and what mistakes already exist to study? Trace one process end to end, such as enquiry to booking, and look for where things slow down or drop.
Can AI help me make better business decisions? Used properly, yes. AI can surface patterns, failures and case studies so you can challenge a decision before spending time and money on it. You still need human judgement and patience to ask the right questions and decide what to change.
What is The Molecule of More? It's a book by Daniel Z. Lieberman and Michael E. Long about dopamine and our drive to want more. I came across its ideas through a podcast on a train between Chengdu and Xi'an, and the idea of always wanting more stuck with me.
Next step
Sharpen your offer with the free Offer Generator, or book a call with me. Read more about me, see the tools I use, or explore my ventures.