In-n-Out Burger: Consistency, Animal Style

Written on December 23, 2008 by Avand Amiri. Takes about a minute to read.

I recently took a trip out to California and had my first dinning experience with In-n-Out Burger. I really reveled in the experience, because they’ve really nailed, what in my mind, makes a great product.

Immediately In-n-Out Burger’s menu jumped out at me. In my day to day operations I’m often tasked with conveying information quickly. The web is my domain, but regardless of medium, the most easy to convey information is also simple information. I’ve commented before on how Apple has been successful following this mantra. So when I walked into In-and-Out, expecting to become quickly stressed with an overload of options, sizes, and extras, I was pleasantly surprised to find this instead:

In-n-Out Burger Menu

No tricks here. A simple set of options, listed by price. A whopping 34 possible menu options by my count. Which seems pretty easy when I compare it to any other fast food places - yeah, that’s right, no salads here. Even the option I found most delicious - “animal style”, is unlisted on the menu. Talk about restraint and compromise. So, we sit down to eat and I’m anxious. I’ve heard good things, and am happy thus far, but just because they have a simple menu, doesn’t say anything about the food. Fresh ingredients: crunchy lettuce, a thick tomato wedge you can actually sink your teeth into, tasty sauce, and real beef, all on a toasted buttery bun. French fries, cut from whole potatoes right before your eyes. Delicious.

First experience was a huge success. But what was really inspiring were the subsequent visits (I tallied 6 charges on my credit card statement after the trip). In-and-Out Burger, beyond making delicious burgers, wins because they’re consistent. The deliver the same experience every meal at every location. The menus, burgers, fries, outfits, tile, floor-plan, receipts, toilet paper - all, exactly the same from store to store. It’s like someone came through with a Chinook and just airdropped them into a lot. This serves the customers, while most not as detail obsessed as I, in making the experience more familiar and completely reliable. And it serves the franchise; just think how much money was saved not having to re-hash every detail.

I was really impressed, and will think back to my experiences there while working in my domain. But first… something to eat.

Thanks for reading! I'm Avand.

I’ve been working on the web for over a decade and am passionate about building great products.

My last job was with Airbnb, where I focused on internal products that helped teams measure the quality of the software they were building. I also built internal tools for employees to stay more connected, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, I was lead engineer at Mystery Science, the #1 way in which science is taught in U.S. elementary school classroms. For a while, I also taught with General Assembly, teaching aspiring developers the basics of front-end web development.

I was born in Boston, grew up in Salt Lake City, and spent many years living in Chicago. Now, I call San Francisco my home and Mariposa my home away from home.

I enjoy the great outdoors and absolutely love music and dance. Cars have been an lifelong obsession of mine, especially vintage BMWs and Volkswagens. I’m the proud owner of a 2002 E-250 Sportsmobile van, and he and I have enjoyed many trips to beautiful and remote parts of the West Coast to create good vibes.

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