“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” – Reid Hoffman
I’ve seen a ton of founders and even experienced product people in large organizations delay the release of an app, site, or whatever because it’s not perfect. Here’s the deal: Perfection is a mirage, a tantalizing but ultimately unreachable goal that can keep you trapped in a never-ending cycle of tweaks and refinements. Enter the phenomenon I like to call “Brain Crack” – not my original idea (of course), but one that came from the amazing Ze Frank and his profanity laced video of the same title.
Brain Crack: The Addiction to Perfection
Brain Crack is what happens when you see a product evolve, and with every improvement, you come up with new ideas to make it even better. It’s that addictive feeling of always having the perfect product just within reach, but never actually releasing it because it lives in your head in a future perfect state. You can live off the crack—the IDEA of perfection—without ever facing the reality of launching.
The Reality Check of Launching
When your product is barely ready for launch, it’s real. This is when the hard work starts. You’ll start comparing it to actual mature products in the market—products that have taken years and millions of dollars to get to their current state. You’ll want your brand new product to look as good and have as many features as something backed by 100 engineers and $50 million. But guess what? It won’t. And that’s okay.
The Myth of the Perfect Launch
People forget that you will almost never launch the right product. Even if it’s for an internal audience, a system will never survive its first encounter with end users unscathed. Products and systems pivot every single time. They are created by a few people with great ideas, doing the best they can with their brains. But when you have a lot more brains looking at something, they will always find things the system can do better or differently, or they’ll use it in ways you never thought about.
Embrace the Ugly Baby
You need to get your product to users as soon as possible so you can start working on the REAL product—the one you don’t know about yet because you haven’t let your ugly baby out of the house. You’ll never know that it’s not ugly or that it is actually a super-powered email replacement rather than a baby in the first place.
Conclusion
The key to building a successful product isn’t about getting it perfect before launch. It’s about getting it out there, letting users interact with it, and learning from their feedback. Your product will evolve in ways you could never predict, but only if you have the courage to release it into the wild, warts and all. So, take a deep breath, let go of the brain crack pipe, and launch that imperfect product. You’ll be embarrassed by the first version, but you’ll also be on your way to creating something truly amazing.
