Dodging the Red Tape: Why less is more when it comes to shipping great products

The Winning Game: Fast Feedback & Faster Shipping

Cracking the code to building stellar software is all about playing it like a team sport. Think of it like this: you need a mix of good plays, quick passes (I mean feedback), and the drive to score (ship) as much as you can.

The MVPs? Teams that can hustle, experiment with finesse, and chow down on feedback like it’s game-day snacks.

Getting your product to flex and shine in the wild — that’s part art / part science. It’s part street smarts, part book smarts, and a whole lot of team vibe.

But as the squad gets bigger, so too does the required coordination. Sometimes, it’s like trying to skateboard through a crowd — it gets dicey.

Approval Maze: Too many cooks…

When you’ve got a growing team, you also get this buffet of approval steps…

It’s like every person wants to sprinkle their own seasoning on the dish, and all we end up with is a confusing flavor and a kitchen mess.

Layer upon layer of approvals from managers and product owners who don’t directly build products and often just want to leave “their mark,” wastes a lot of time, especially when they suggest changes like new layouts or last-minute alterations to user flows. All of that is just more delay and more overhead for everyone.

“ Eventually, it came time for the producer to review the animation set for the queen. The producer sat down and watched all of the animations. When they were done, he turned to the artist and said, “That looks great. Just one thing–get rid of the duck."

NOTE: for more on this point check out two of my all time favs: Project managers, ducks, and dogs marking territory and On Design Approval and Intentional Flaws

Last-minute changes foisted on a design team often degrade a product, complicate a flow, or otherwise act counterproductively to a product’s intended emotional experience.

The more strict and systemic approvers or decision makers you have in your design process, the more opportunity for such superfluous changes to delay the final product and negatively impact team and customer morale.

But, not all hope is lost: world-class product design teams have figured this out and know how to operate very differently. Unlike heavily layered approval processes, the best teams operate from a foundation of trust and respect for each other’s expertise and deliberately limit systemic red tape. Top teams streamline decisions and keep approval filters to an absolute minimum to ensure speedy iteration.

Want to Join a World-Class Design Team?

Over the past five years, we’ve tirelessly sculpted Thoropass’s product, design, and engineering orgs into an industry beacon. Our team of product enthusiasts are among the most deeply committed to the product, our customers, one another, and–above all–to the craft itself.

Taste matters to us–we ship beautiful, easy-to-use products to customers, not PowerPoint decks. We aim to get customers hands on new features and products ASAP, and we trust our people to make design decisions as they see them without endless committees or unnecessary red tape.

If you’re drawn to solving interesting and valuable problems in one of the fastest growing technology sectors, email me or anyone on my team. We’re easy to find on LinkedIn (or email…just guess). …we’re always looking for great teammates to join the cause ?? !!

Streamline SOC 2, ISO 2700*, HITRUST, PCI, & more: thoropass.com

—

Thanks for reading !! If you found this post useful, you might also enjoy these:

Lessons from ‘Failure’ in Startups

Founder’s Perspective: Overkill Seed Stage Due Diligence

Accelerators: fantastic…but not magic

I’m on X.com/austinogilvie and LinkedIn.com/in/austinogilvie

Book a 1:1 w/ me: intro.co/austinogilvie to talk startups, investing, moral philosophy, or extreme sports