Get it Out or Get it Right ?
When I started my first job, right out of college I was a Full Stack developer. I took some time to learn the ropes and the phrase I often heard was “You need to make it First Time Right”. Anything I built of course had to be robust and bug free.
Fast forward a couple of years and I started my journey as a Product Manager. The phrase I now often hear is “You need to develop a Fail Fast approach”. The expectation now was not to get it right in the first go, but get it right fast through multiple iterations.
Looking back, I was trying to reflect on what is the ideal approach “Get it out?” or “Get it right?”
Now of course both need not be mutually exclusive, there is the golden scenario where we get it right the first time we get it out. Rarely however does that actually happen.
Let me break down the science behind each approach.
The Get it Out Approach
Dropbox is a beautiful scenario of the “Get it Out” approach because the “IT” they got out was just a demo video showcasing the functionality, not even a fully finished product! Uber upon launch was a simple app which matched drivers & riders. The ease of use and convenience of the MVP helped Uber quickly establish itself in major cities before competitors could replicate their model.
What are some of the benefits of the Get it Out Approach?
First Mover Advantage: First Mover Advantage is a very real phenomenon. Especially while breaking into a completely new product offering, rolling the product out early can cement product association with users. For instance, many people I have talked to are ardent users of ChatGPT simply because they said it came first and they are used to it now.
Rapid Feedback and Iteration: In the book, “The CEO Factory”, the author Sudhir Sitapati explains how every new college graduate who joins HUL does an extensive field stint and spends weeks talking to the vendors & distributors. Why does HUL not conduct training in a fancy conference room but push folks out to dusty corners of the country? Lessons learnt out there can’t be learnt even by countless numbers & charts inside a room. The earlier the product gets out there even as a beta or MVP version, the sooner the feedback process starts. Getting your product into users’ hands early for real-world feedback enables quick iteration and long-term success through addressing user needs.
Lower Development Costs & Risk Mitigation: Rolling out smaller versions allows pivoting faster if the underlying hypothesis is proved incorrect without significant sunk costs. By focusing, on core functionalities first, you can get your product out faster and with fewer resources. This allows you to test the market viability of your idea without a huge upfront investment.
The Get it Right Approach
Gmail was not the first email service provider to be launched, there was already Hotmail & Yahoo. Yet Gmail bags 28.78% users worldwide & in India 4 out of 5 users prefer Gmail. Gmail was offering expansive storage, a responsive interface, instant search, and other advanced features upon launch. This helped consolidate its position, despite not being the first product in the market.
What are some of the benefits of the Get it Right Approach?
Strong First Impression: Like Harvey Specter said “Get it through your head, First Impressions last !” A well-designed and fully functional product creates a positive first impression and brand association in the minds of the users. Prioritizing quality over speed is extremely essential, especially for products where user trust and reliability are critical, such as financial services or medical devices.
Clear Value Proposition: Launching with a complete set of features ensures users understand the full value proposition of your product. This avoids confusion and helps users see how your product solves their problem effectively.
Scalability: A finished product, not only would have all the features as required by the user but also the systems involved would be robust and not built on any technical debt. It would be easier to scale as the demand grows thereby minimizing any disruptions.
What is the best way forward?
Reid Hoffman said, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
This quote is often taken out of context and used as a reason to roll out substandard products. That’s not the intent at all. Drawing from my experience on Fail Fast vs First Time Right, the reality is an amalgamation of both approaches.
If you roll out an MVP with a limited set of features, the MVP in itself should be robust and bug-free. Coming back to the Product Management fundamentals on build the right product & build it right — the approach should be to keep building each iteration right & eventually it will lead to the right product.
The rule of thumb is — “Is what we are shipping helping us learn what we want to learn while providing value to the user?”. If the answer to both is a resounding yes, then roll it out!
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