peanut buttering
n.— «Peanut buttering (v)—The tendency to evenly distribute resources across the full range of a product rather than focusing on a few core Value Propositions. While discussing this issue recently someone described it as “peanut buttering” the product. By spreading out all our resources evenly across the product we lose the opportunity to focus on a few key areas where we can deliver a substantial value proposition. Notice this does NOT mean that we forget the basics.» —“Peanut butter and software planning” by Brad Abrams Brad Abrams Nov. 21, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1916, a small-town newspaper in Pennsylvania printed a fanciful item about a local gathering with a guest list that included, among others, Miss Ella Vader, Mr. Ray Zor, and other punny names. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski shares one of this take-off puzzles, where the object is to remove a letter from the beginning from one word to form another word. In this case, the letter is always S. For example, what two words are clued by “The Opportunity...
Mark Hurd, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, likes to use the term “peanut butter spread” to describe the same resource misallocation problem. I don’t know if his usage predates Brad Adams’ or not.