Celebrate Your First Draft
Then Encourage and Expect the Feedback to be Critical
I’m writing this because *I* need to celebrate writing the first draft of my book! It’s been almost a year in progress and today is the day I can say I’ve finally written my first complete draft.
And I also think it’s a great analogy to share with anyone who may be struggling with creating content, writing code, building products, heck, doing just about anything. The first draft is a significant milestone because it’s the first full product version you can share to get feedback. Outlines, designs, intentions, and partial products don’t count nearly as much. But the first draft, even if it’s got a thousand flaws you’re already aware of is still crucially important. Celebrate it.
My advice is get there as soon as you can. Then immediately put a plan together to start collecting feedback. Who can you show the first draft to? Probably not your highest priority target client you’ve not won yet. Probably just some close friends, or supportive stakeholders. Be choosy but seek out honest and direct feedback. You may find that some of the things you think are flaws aren’t really so bad. And just as importantly, some fresh eyes will see challenges and new approaches that you cannot.
Anytime you are seeking feedback, you need to over-communicate a bit and emphasize the fact that you want the feedback. Tell people to be overly honest. Encourage them to be critical and let them know that you are expecting it and that it’s part of the process.
I know I have a mountain of editing to do to finish my book. But I am eager to get some real honest feedback from a short list of friends and fellow agile coaches whom I know will dig in and give it to me straight.
If you enjoyed this, please clap and share. It means a lot to know my work on this blog is read and used by agilists out there in the world.
Hi, I’m Brian Link, an Enterprise Agile Coach and AI Advisor who loves his job helping people. I call myself and my company the “Practical Agilist” because I pride myself on helping others distill down the complexity of the Agile and AI universes into easy to understand and simple common sense.
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