Today Heidi, one of our villagers, made a comment on the post we created about leveraging YouTube.
Here’s what she wrote:
“I was challenged by my business coach to do 21 videos in 21 days. It’s been an interesting journey as I have gotten over some of my hang ups about being on camera. Now I focus on the content and not how I look! The important thing is to ship it!”
Some of the marketing gurus (especially Seth Godin, Tom Peters, and Gary Vaynerchuk) talk about the importance of “shipping” your product/service as soon as possible. In other words, getting it out the door even if it isn’t perfect.
Apple perfected the art of shipping long ago. Over time, they were able to ship even when the customer base knew the product wasn’t perfect. However, the design was basically great and the fans knew that Apple would constantly (and relentlessly) improve their product each and every time. The early adopters want the first, not the perfect.
In the world of design (online and offline), the term “analysis paralysis” is often used for those situations where the team becomes so obsessed with the idea that they beat it to death by designing, re-designing and perfecting for so long that they forget the ultimate goal – ship the product for people to buy, use, sell, love, cherish!
It is a fine balance between delivering quality and delivering the product on time. It’s the typical balance between time, money, and quality. Pick two. (-:
As all the gurus know, and what Heidi’s coach understands, is that it is time to get your idea/product/service out to the world.
- Fine tune it as you go.
- Learn from your mistakes.
- Listen to your audience.
- Apply feedback.
Sooner or later, your product will add the value you hoped and may just be better or different than you originally imagined.
P.S. The idea for Nudge Village was an idea over a year ago and the Chief Nudger didn’t sit down to do anything with the idea until Thanksgiving 2010. Now it is a site that will hopefully grow and help a few people along the way.
