Now we get to my favourite sneak question… What does perfect look like?
I would like you to list, when your project is working perfectly, exactly what is it?
– What kind of profit does it have?
– Who loves it?
– What shape is it?
– What colour is it?
– What do the reviews say?
Whatever is important to you about “perfect”, this is the page where you write down what it is like when it is perfect.
But then the next page says “What does good enough look like?”
And “good enough” probably shouldn’t be the same as “perfect.”
And the definition of good enough is “Good. Enough.” Because
perfect is the enemy of good, and it is better to ship something that is good enough – because you told me what good enough was – than to ship nothing.
So you need to be clear with the team that they get four gold stars if they make something perfect, but they all still get gold stars if they make something good enough.
Because we’re all in the business of making things that are good enough, even if you want to make good enough really close to perfect, but there’s a difference.
And you cannot be in the business of shipping on a regular basis if perfect is your only option, because you just don’t get perfect.
Seth Godin – Startup School – ep. 14 The ShipIt Journal
See also:
– Seth Godin on limits to quality