The startup dilemma

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through. — Steve Jobs

I’m lucky to work with a highly talented team of product developers. The small details baked into the product make the team proud of what we dedicate our most precious resource, time, to.

However, we are a startup with limited resources. This fact causes me to wonder, are we sweating the small stuff too much? If we stop, will we lose our desire to build exceptional products?

In my mind, Steve Jobs wasn’t a great ideas person. He was a great prioritizer.

Even with limited resources, you can still build exceptional products. The key is to do less. The things that you do are the things that matter the most.