The phrase, “Perfect is the enemy of good” was first written down by Voltaire in the eighteenth century. Three hundred years on and it’s a lesson that many of us still struggle to take on board.
The desire for perfection on your most important projects can, paradoxically, prevent your new product or solution from having the impact you’re after. The time taken to shift the project from ‘good-to-go’ to ‘100%-Ready’ allows competitors to move into your space and reach your customers first.
While your customers may have some reservations about your initial solution, they may equally determine that ‘good’ is actually ‘good enough’. What’s more, it allows you to learn about how to improve and make the next version even better.
My favourite business quote comes from Michael Bloomberg’s management book Bloomberg on Bloomberg: “We made mistakes of course. Most of them were omissions we didn’t think of when we initially wrote the software. We fixed them by doing it over and over, again and again. We do the same today. While our competitors are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design perfect., we’re already on Version No.5. By the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we are on Version No.10. It gets backs to planning versus acting. We act from day one; others plan how to plan – for months!”
The question you need to answer “Yes!” to for any launch is not, “Is this 100%-ready and perfect?” as it never will be; it is “Is this good-to-go?”
Off The Record: Not Perfect by Tim Minchin
This is my brain and it’s fine,
It’s where I spend the vast majority of my time,
It’s not perfect, but it’s mine,
It’s not perfect.