Start Now; Iterate and Saturate Later

Why it matters: The future is unpredictable, and the graveyard is full of detailed planned projects.

• Many projects fail because they start with the "perfect" setup rather than refining the core value.

• Launching quickly with a core offering allows for collecting feedback to prioritize future decisions.

• Collected feedback and data allow for better-informed decisions on what to improve.

Zoom out: Nobody knows what they are building until they showcase it to the world.

• The role of randomness is big; predicting the market or human behavior is impossible.

• The only way is to ship and learn from the world about what works.

Example: After the 2024 Japanese GP, the boss of the Mercedes F1 team says about "better understanding the car they built":

Asked if the Brackley-based outfit now has a better understanding of the W15, Wolff responded: "Much better, definitely much better. Lots more data to point us in the right direction, even if it's not reflected in the result."

• A Formula 1 car costs many millions $ to design and build. If top-performance sports teams learn about their cars during racing, why can't we do the same with software?

Knowing your "core value offer" is the easy part. Cutting everything around it down to ship-this-week scope is what Feature Priorities does — three buckets, hard ranking, no rubber-stamping.

The bottom line: Sometimes, the best decision in software delivery is to delay making a decision. Launch quickly with your core value offer, learn from real-world interactions, and evolve based on real user needs.