The Half-life of Good Product Decisions

Much like radioactive materials, good product decisions start decaying as soon as you make them. There will be a point in the future when your good decisions should be reevaluated and changed. There’s no such thing as absolute truth in product.

How many users you have, your team size, the market conditions, and new features in the product all can determine when it’s time to make changes. Perfectly good decisions will look stupid given enough time.

The need for a change can be plotted as an exponential curve. At first it doesn’t seem important, but it will quickly become blindingly obvious. It’s essential to time your change to hit the upswing on that curve. If you wait too long, it’s too late.

When people start requesting features or complaining about things you’re already in the process of fixing, you’re doing it right.