Embrace that Your Assumptions will be Wrong
Once you embrace that your assumptions about your customer will almost always be wrong, you realize that launching faster is far more important than trying to get it perfect upfront. The marketplace is the ultimate truth. Only after you launch will you get real feedback from real customers. Which means that within days, you will learn that several — if not many — of your upfront assumptions were wrong.
Once you realize this, you can start to see that it is a complete waste to allow yourself, or your teams, to spend tons of extra time and resources trying to make something “perfect” and allowing “perfect” to delay your launch. It’s literally money and resources flushed down the toilet, because you don’t know what perfect is yet. BUT — what I am willing to bet, is that YOU DO KNOW what is “80% perfect” right now and you can get that to market quickly. So, your job as the CEO of your world is to define what is 80% perfect and then push everyone to get that product or feature to market (even as a small, controlled beta test) as quickly as possible.
Have you ever noticed or tracked how expensive the remaining 20% of any feature, project, or product is? I have. I have been a part of too many projects where a team will get 80% done in one day, yet it takes an extra 30 days just to complete that last 20% of perfection. I’m sure you have too. It’s those projects that just linger and never get done. It’s those projects that randomly pop in your head and you immediately think WTF why is that not done yet, and then you step in and realize everyone has been overcomplicating it. They are overcomplicating it because they are banking on their assumptions. They want to be right and are scared to be wrong.
So I encourage you to take stock right now of any product, feature, or project you are working on — especially those that seem to be dragging on. Find the 80/20 in it, and I’m willing to bet you can get it completed in 1-2 days. More importantly, teach everyone on your team to embrace that their assumptions will always be wrong, so will yours, and that this is just a fact of business. It’s nothing to get emotional about. Doing this will create a culture based on fast execution, getting to market quickly, and collecting customer feedback as the way to ultimately achieve perfection.
About the Author Nick Friend
Nick Friend is an Entrepreneur, Investor, Husband, Father of 3 daughters. Built businesses from scratch to 8 figures, and has been nominated for several Entrepreneurship awards. Nick enjoys helping other entrepreneurs, particularly those fighting the struggle from $0-10 million.