How Perfectionism Kills Your Startup
If you are a proud staunch perfectionist and ready to defend this attitude to the last second of the iPhone battery life, close this tab. No one here is going to convince you. Still, if you are confident enough to review your product and receive some constructive criticism, admit mistakes and accept advice — welcome, you are in the right place.
I’ve witnessed two promising startups go biting the dust even before their official launch, and there is another one struggling here with little chance of taking off. We are connected to these companies in a certain way. Our team always celebrates success of our friends, customers, and clients and get upset with their missteps, so the failure of the mentioned 2.5 startups makes us really sad.
Why are some startups get closed even before they reveal their MVP, the minimum viable product? There is a bunch of reasons. But I can name one major problem that prevents a young team from taking off or even accelerating. That is perfectionism which makes startup founders and business owners pay extra attention to the slightest detail on the launch stage, which is nothing but unnecessary.
Perfectionism comes in at least five formats:
1. Hesitation at each step
When in any process — product development, team management, marketing, sales or finance — each micro step is put under a microscope. Precious time is spent on fixing minor issues which do not have any close relation to the launch. In this case, a startup founder is firmly convinced that meticulousness is hugely important. Sorry, but it is not. Your aim is to introduce the product to the market, that’s actually why you are here. Turn any decision into action, do not polish every detail at the stage of launching and revealing the project on the market. The only way to truly evaluate the product is to produce it, and the longer you delay the launch, the fewer chances it has to eventually get onto the market.
2. Identifying weaknesses or gaps
That’s when the founder religiously believes that the team or contractors have missed something. You get stuck in all the processes and scrutinize all the elements, dig deep to find minor problems (and, of course, discover them), analyze and make corrections. And then you correct the correction, over and over again. As a result, you and your team feel unhappy about the project which fails and are not proud of yourself too. Get some paper tissues, it’s drama time.
3. Endless discussions
Today you have agreed on a blue shade and started to use it, but tomorrow you’ll decide to switch to red and ask to change everything. And the day after tomorrow, you want another shade of red, not the sad #ca1030 but the energetic #d71139, because “it is difficult to explain, but the first is not perfect enough.” In this pursuit of imaginary perfection, the key concept breaks down into molecules and simply dissolves. You just don’t have any time and energy left.
4. “And Bob said”
When some Bob comes and says “It’s all bullshit.” The worst thing here is that Bob with all his influence is not an expert and doesn’t even have a clue about product development. But he is a person and a consumer, that’s a fact. And he has an opinion, that’s a fact too. And he knows more than all of you who have already launched numerous products. Such third parties’ opinions totally destroy your confidence. Where is that brilliant idea which used to wake you up at 5 am and gave more energy than 5 cups of coffee? Where is the burning desire to implement your concept? No one knows. Including Bob.
5. Fear to face the idea’s value
What doesn’t let the product reach the final stage of implementation? It’s your fear to test the product and get negative feedback. You don’t even want to hear someone saying your product is still not perfect. But why should the product be ideal from the start? Perfectionists know this deep in their heart but are still afraid to let people look at their one-day baby chicken. Although no one ever expects to see an adult bird at this stage.
What to do:
1. Create MVP, even with one or two functions.
2. Communicate with potential customers rather than Bobs, test assumptions and see what you get. Listen to your potential consumers, never get distracted by the comments of people who don’t really have a clue.
3. Invest in marketing and promotion.
4. See how people react to the product, analyze it and make predictions and plans based on the results.
5. Be engaged both in operational processes and product development.
Running to extremes is the worst, especially without any real purpose. You should clearly define what functions and features the product needs to get launched. Don’t get stuck in your own perfectionism trap. Test and reveal the concept, let people know what product you’re going to sell them, and only then make improvements based on reasonable feedback.
Otherwise, there is a risk of drowning in endless revisions and being distracted by millions of opinions, without having any tangible results. Why have you started all this then?? Go and pet your perfectionism in some other place.
valerie@quadrate28.com
