Would you like to release software that attracts customers (as opposed to users, two different classifications)?
Twitter user Jason Gorman wrote an entirely sensible tweet that I read this morning:
After twelvety years in software development, I’ve come to the conclusion that the fastest way to deliver the right software is to deliver the wrong software sooner.
The internet has an allergy to the entirely sensible, and one idea in particular stood out—that only in software is this nonsense allowed. I think that’s a fair paraphrasing of the response.
Now, I know there are literally tens of you opening and reading these emails. This is unequivocally not an invitation to go dunk on the person who gave that reply. We’re here to consider the idea in the tweet. Be ruthless in optimizing systems, not people.
As a developer, author, really anything, you hit a point where the information you need cannot come from within you or your team. Or, if you’re a chef, you hit a point where someone has to taste your food.
Does this mean that as soon as you’ve hit that point, you should go take out a lease on a restaurant space, invest a few hundred thousand into kitchen equipment, have a grand opening, and then put a plate in front of a taster?
No. If you come up with a dish, ask a friend to taste it later that day.
You can’t deliver fully-formed products to customers on the first go. No company launches their product after the first code commit.
You can get inexpensive, customer feedback early. If you’re building a system for lawyers, for example, observe the lawyers doing their job for an hour. Hypothesize a solution, sketch it, and ask the lawyer, “if this thing existed, would it make you more effective at your job? What would you pay for it?”
You could have that interaction in about 5 minutes, which wouldn’t even cross the lawyer’s 6-minute billing threshold.
Even if it did, which would cost you more, 6 minutes of a lawyer’s time, or staffing an entire development organization for a year for a feedback-free, big bang release?
What keeps you from seeking early feedback?
