Don't worry be crappy
Ok, one more Guy Kawasaki post. His 5th tenet in the art of innovation is "Don't worry, be crappy."
Am I wrong, or are associations hypersensitive to criticism? We spend a lot of time trying to get things perfect. Actually, I'd say we spend a lot of time trying to get things really good, which is quite different.
But what Kawasaki said was you can't be afraid to serve something that is only mostly baked--"Don't worry be crappy." Now that doesn't mean, he says, you can be forgiven for developing a crappy product. Rather, "you want to ship something revolutionary with elements of crappiness to it."
Your organization is going to function better if it's speedy with its release and then takes feedback to improve the product.
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Comments
This reminds of a great takeaway from UnTech: "Fail, but fail faster so you can move onto something that works better." Not everything has to be perfect right away, all the time. Associations shouldn't be afraid of trial and error — and especially the "error" part.
Posted by: Shannon Otto | March 8, 2010 11:23 AM
Perfection is the enemy of productivity.
But I do wonder, considering Kawasaki's background in early-stage companies, do the same "crappy" standards apply to early-stage organizations, growing organizations and mature organizations?
Posted by: Adam Steinberg | March 8, 2010 11:56 AM
Hmmmm. Need to think about this one but not for too long. As long as "crappy" isn't the way Microsoft does it. That is, release a beta version of something that you KNOW isn't finished and then create updates after updates before finally abandoning it altogether. With a trail of very dissatisfied customers who are now using Macs. (Think Vista)
Posted by: K L Wilson CAE | March 19, 2010 9:12 AM