This is a common theme: perfection and aiming for perfection. But in so much of digital experiences, we're somewhat building in the dark or building with just kind of like a dim light. Like we don't see everything clearly because we're building for other people.
When we build for other people, that means that the way we think about something out of the gate cannot be the answer for how someone else is going to think about it. So what does it have to do with good enough? The problem is that when we don't settle for what is good and there's so much to that.
First, we need to know what good actually is
And it's not defined by our own taste, purely, but it's defined by the context and what we're solving for. But because we could continue building and continue building and continue building, what that creates is a really, really long tail before we actually get feedback from the people that we're building for.
So when we choose to disappear and build for long periods of time, that's a liability. The better thing is to have total clarity around what is actually important to build and that's a collaborative process to align on that. And then to understand the pace and rhythm of how much to build so that way a shorter feedback cycle can be maintained.
This is why at HEED we prioritize weekly demos
We never go longer than a week without demoing the work that we're doing. Part of that is because it's good accountability, both ways, and it's also good accountability for our pace. And it's totally appropriate that we would have something to show every single week.
So it's kind of the opposite. I do believe in good enough. And I don't believe in a perfect experience. What I believe in is rapid iteration, continuous feedback, and building the right things at the right pace.
The HEED Approach
- Weekly demos with all clients
- Never go longer than a week without showing progress
- Collaborative alignment on what's important to build
- Rapid feedback cycles over perfection
The goal isn't to build the perfect solution in isolation. It's to build the right solution through continuous collaboration and feedback. Because in the end, what matters most isn't how perfect we think something is—it's how well it actually works for the people who use it.