On The Secret of Launching Things That Are Just Good Enough

Have you ever spent hours and hours trying to craft something into perfection? Maybe an essay, article, website or product? Ask yourself honestly: Was it worth it?

In my experience, perfection is overrated. While it is true that the devil is in the details and that you will win a lot with perfection in most situations—the road to perfection will take more time than you have.

Instead, spend that time on launching something that is good enough to get your customers or stakeholders excited and spend the time you win on improving it rapidly with the feedback from actual users. There is nothing worse, for your reputation or your financials, than launching a product that it turns out isn’t exactly what your customers want. Few products are.

An argument that I typically hear when coaching start-ups is that they cannot risk anyone finding out about the product. While this fear is warranted in some situations, products and services aren’t as easily copied as you may think. It still takes a competitor considerable resources to beat you to market, with a better product than what you are already starting to launch.

Quickly iterating (or what we throw around with all the craze: being agile) is simply the key of launching something that eventually will turn into something big, while minimizing your financial risk. Try it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.