Valuable failures
SCRUM & LEAN UX | Episode 11
The ‘Scrum and Lean UX’ series discusses the appliance of Lean UX principles and practices in Scrum. All its articles have this theme and can be read on their own.
To those familiar with the game of poker: when beginner players are invested in a hand, they are not inclined to fold when the flop turns out to be a flop. They don’t want to face the loss of their initial investment when there is still a chance, however small, it might return.
Fearing they have made a bad bet, rather than fold and try again, they often do something far riskier: They hope that the turn or river will yet yield something. Alternatively, they hope to bluff their way, hoping it won’t come to a showdown. Out of fear of wasting money, they’ll risk wasting even more.
LEAN UX helps organizations avoid this trap or escape Sunk Cost fallacies. Failing and adapting early is a lot less expensive than failing late when opportunities to adapt have passed. Small experiments that validate (or debunk) hypotheses equals small valuable bets. A big unsubstantiated budgeted project equals a large risky bet. When you ended up in the wrong place when a lot of time has passed and the budget has been spent… boy oh boy…
Failing early is valuable. Pretentiously succeeding is wasteful.
