I was convinced users wanted more customization. User testing proved me wrong.

Founder here.

Over the last few weeks, I've been working on an AI website generation product and made an assumption that turned out to be completely wrong.

I thought users would appreciate having more control over the generated website. So I kept adding options: design preferences, layouts, color choices, section settings, and various customization steps.

What actually happened was that many non-technical users started hesitating before even generating their first website. Several users spent more time deciding than building.

To test this, I simplified the flow and removed a number of decisions from the onboarding process. Instead of asking users to configure everything upfront, I let the system make more decisions automatically.

The feedback was surprising. Many users seemed more comfortable when they could get a result quickly and refine it later, rather than being asked to make lots of choices at the beginning.

Now I'm trying to find the right balance between automation and control.

For those building SaaS products:

• Have you seen similar behavior from users?
• At what point does reducing options become too restrictive?
• Do your users prefer a fast default experience or deeper customization from the start?

I'd love to hear what you've learned from your own products.