“If You’re Not Embarrassed When Submitting Your First Version, You’ve Been Waiting Too Long.”
Listen, creators: don’t wait until what you are doing is “perfect” or completely finished. Submit version 1.0 when it is good enough, but it might even confuse you.
The above quote is from Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress. He describes how trying to fit “one more thing” can harm your project:
“Another one” killed us. We could have easily put out three major releases that year if we drew a line in the sand, said done, and sent the damn thing. The problem is, the longer it’s been since your last release, the more pressure and anticipation, so you’re more likely to try to slip away from just one thing or fix that will make the feature really shine. For some projects, this literally takes forever.
[…] I believe there were commands before the iPod or iPhone that said the same thing: the copy + paste guys are * so close * to being ready, and we know Walt Mossberg is going to kill us for that. so let’s just not ship to manufacturers in China for a few more weeks … The Apple teams were probably confused. But if you’re not embarrassed when submitting your first version, you’ve been waiting too long.
Early delivery and often, he continues, gives you the critical user feedback you need to improve your work:
You can never fully predict how the audience will react to what you have created until it appears. This means that every time you work on something without being in public, it actually dies, deprived of the oxygen of the real world.
Remember that finished is better than perfect , so send it, send it .
1.0 is the loneliest number | Ma.tt