Perfect is the enemy of good

Yesterday I shared a recent article about France’s “repairability index”, which tries to assess how easy it is to repair consumer electronics. The hope is that ranking leading manufacturers will incentivize them to redesign their products.?

The article acknowledges that this index is not perfect - but I argued that it has the advantage of existing.

This made me think. How often do we want to wait until something is “perfect” before releasing it? We have this saying in France, “le mieux est l’ennemi du bien”. In English, this roughly means “better is the enemy of good”; a more powerful translation is the one I chose above, substituting "perfect" for "better". You get the point.

Indeed, Big Bang implementations don’t work. Don’t wait until your product is perfect or even complete, just get it out. You will continue to iterate and improve it anyway - but in the meantime, having a first version in production means you start receiving valuable feedback and know where to focus your attention next..

Does this apply to other areas as well? You've heard of these:

• “I’ll join the gym when I am a bit more fit”
• “I’ll compete when I am better”
• “I’ll teach when I am more knowledgeable”
• “I’ll learn about leadership when I am a manager”
• “I’ll save money when I’m rich”

The list goes on…

What all these have in common is they are precisely in the wrong order. You get fit by going to the gym; you improve by competing; you learn by teaching. And yes, your product gets better by releasing it early, getting feedback and iterating aggressively.

What about Apple you ask? Good question! The company has obviously been tremendously successful by arguably never rushing a product to market until it was perfect. Point taken. The exception that confirms the rule (another favorite French saying btw) perhaps? I don't know, but would love to hear your thoughts.

#intrapreneur #entrepreneur #productmanagement #iterate #bigbangsdontwork