I was having lunch today with some editors of a local weekly. After listening to them talk about what they do I realized that we do it too. We’re editors.

They edit articles, we edit software.

We prune it. We clip off the extra features like they clip off the extra words. We trim the interface like they trim a sentence. We chop products in half like they ask for 5000 words instead of 10,000.

The editing process is what makes a great product. Editing the feature list, editing customer requests, editing the interface, editing the code, editing the marketing, editing the copywriting. It’s not about designing or writing or coding, it’s about trimming those weeds back before they ruin the lawn.

So keep that in mind when you write, design, code, or promote. Good editors build great software.