How to Make Your Projects Real
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 6:53PM "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day... "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child... REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
--Velveteen Rabbit by Tracy Phaup
Some projects are so large that they are intimidating to begin, to keep working on, or to finish. If they are projects that provide value but lack an external deadline or other outside pressure to finalize the work, it can be easy to convince yourself that you are making progress when in fact you are just thinking about it. If the project means a lot to you emotionally, you might become so invested in it that you can't bear the idea that it might not be perfect. You might hold yourself to such high ideals that the project never becomes reality, because you never get far enough towards your shifting goal of perfection to actually let it go out into the world and become real.
Is there a place for daydreaming, brainstorming, planning and perfecting? Of course! But at some point, your project is only real if you do it... and finish it.
I believe that it's generally best to make your project real as soon as possible. The easiest way to achieve this goal is to make your scope smaller for the first version and add more later, instead of trying to finish everything over a longer period of time: create a a basic, functional, good-enough iteration that works and launch or implement it.
If your project will eventually be shared with others or with the public, make this good-enough version available to some or all of its future users. If your project is a process, you can launch it by starting to implement some aspects of it right away, knowing that you will keep the things that work, add more new pieces and make changes over time... instead of waiting to start the new process till you're sure you've decided on the perfect system.
Once you've gotten that first good-enough version out there and running in the world, you can continue to add improvements and additional functionality over time until you are happy with the final results. However, if you wait and wait till the perfect version is done, you might never get there. Also, working in iterations in this way gives you the added advantage of early feedback-- learning more quickly what will and won't work, so that you can correct your course as you go. Since most projects need more change when they start being used in the real world, this head start on those changes is a huge advantage that keeps you from wasting time. In some rare cases, you may even discover that the good-enough version is in fact all you need... and that you can start working on something else new and exciting.
Examples of projects large and small that can be completed in "good-enough" full drafts or iterations, then improved over time:
- Launching a new website or blog
- Drafting a communication plan for your department
- Re-organizing a room in the house
- Writing a resume, cover letter, or school application
- Creating a new email processing, filing or task-tracking system
Have you ever overcome inertia on a project by making a complete good-enough version and then perfecting it over time? Or, do you have a project now that might be made real sooner rather than later? I'd love to hear about it.
Reader Comments (4)
Ha - exactly the advice I need right now! I've been "in the process of launching" my new web store since January. I need to launch a beta version like yesterday. Thanks for the push :)
Hooray for "good enough". I am by no means lowering my standards when I say that, but so often we're so afraid of unleashing something we've worked so hard to create for the simple reason that it's not perfect yet. In my experience, it's so much better to present a good enough product than to hide it because once it's out there, it has a life of its own and input from others helps make it better. My best weapon against inertia is self-imposed deadlines. It feels great to meet that deadline and to get that project out.
Excellent point. FlyLady is always on this one about housework, a really obvious area where doing it imperfectly is vastly superior to putting it off, but it applies all over!
Also relates to Agile programming, where you work on getting the most important features working first, and leave the fillips for later steps.
Melanie - good for you! When are you going to release the beta version?
Belinda - Totally agree with you on the power of self-imposed deadlines!
Eva - You're right, there are some definite parallels with Agile here.