In product design, “the target is moving all the time. You can't afford to wait for the perfect solution. Perfectionism requires resources that are scarce and therefore don't exist. By the time you've created perfection, the target will have moved." And then your perfect product is no longer useful.
Think of nature and biology. There is no time for perfectionism. Nature starts out imperfect then corrects and evolves over time. Evolution is the most important aspect of nature - no organism is able to survive unless it evolves. The same is true for organic, living products and software.
Perfectionism is a strategy doomed for failure. Instead, start with a mediocre product that you can iterate on based on user feedback. Keep iterating until it becomes great. Ship fast, ship often and let the users' interactions with the product surprise you. Then, learn from those interactions and use them to iterate even more.
2 weeks ago, YouTube music released an app update on Android. I used YouTube music as my main streaming service so I noticed the changes. Brilliant changes - the much more usable interface I'd been hoping for.
I was grateful yet I also noticed that the update missed crucial elements such as a replay button. ‘How could a company as big as Google push out a flawed update?', I kept thinking.
2 days ago, I opened the app and the replay button was back. Along with several other features that make for a more enjoyable experience.
Ship. Iterate. If Google does it, who am I to hold myself back from releasing imperfect products?
Get something out the door that’s honest, raw, and has all the major table stakes elements. And then leave it. Keep iterating with feedback and making tweaks here and there. It’ll evolve into its best version naturally if you test frequently. - Corey to Conor on RoamResearch
Rest and recovery are key. As is a break from social media. I have more clarity than I've had for a while. By following and listening to what feels good I was able to do some near effortless work this morning.
I don't mean that in a woo-woo sense. I mean, I woke up, I stayed quiet and waited until a desire for an action came up. Then, I took that action. It just so happened to be that the feeling that came up was, 'I want to make a user persona visual'.
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