Why not release earlier?

blog.iterate.no

6 pointssimenfur3 comments

Personally I do not like to release early, but the reason for this, I think, lies not in fear to get negative feedback, but rather in:

1. desire to delay the appearance of the problems caused by maintaining backwards compatibility

2. unwillingness to divert limited resources to customer support - unfinished product can demand higher support costs

Simple.

Because if you don't love what you've spent all the blood, sweat and tears building then what is the point of it all ? And you know what is worse than no feedback. Bad feedback that crushes morale and energy that could've been avoided.

So you definitely need to subscribe to the "real artists ship" mantra but also not put out something you know is crap.

Nowhere in "release early, release often" does it mention "release crap." There is an art to defining "how often" and deciding when something is just usable enough to receive valuable feedback. I agree, releasing crappy software or a crappy design is not helpful, even detrimental sometimes. It's about finding a balance between usability speed-to-market.

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