At Some Point, You Have to Launch

Hello!

My last post was about how just because something works doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ready.

That’s true.

But there’s a problem on the other side too.

At some point, you have to launch.

“Ready” Can Become a Moving Target

I’ve been working on my new project for quite a while now.

And lately, I’ve noticed how easy it is to keep finding things to improve.

Rewrite this sentence.

Move that button.

Adjust the padding on that box.

Make this section a little wider.

Change the wording again.

Then change it back.

I wish I were exaggerating.

There is almost no end to it.

And the tricky part is that most of those changes really do make things a little better.

That’s what makes it so easy to keep going.

You aren’t necessarily wasting time.

You’re improving things.

But eventually there comes a point where another hour spent adjusting padding probably isn’t going to teach you as much as letting a hundred real people use the site.

Real Users Change Everything

I can click through every page.

I can test different screen sizes.

I can create test accounts.

I can try to break things.

But there’s one problem.

I already know how everything is supposed to work.

That changes the way I use the site.

A brand-new member doesn’t know what I expect them to click next.

They may completely miss something I thought was obvious.

They may misunderstand wording I thought was perfectly clear.

They may use a feature in a way I never considered.

They may find some strange combination of clicks that I never thought to test.

And once a few hundred real people start moving through the site, I fully expect them to uncover a whole new list of things that need fixing.

Honestly, I’d be surprised if they didn’t.

That doesn’t mean the launch failed.

It means I finally have information I couldn’t get by testing everything myself.

How Do You Know When to Launch?

Before launch, a lot of improvement is based on prediction.

Will people understand this?

Will they notice that button?

Will this page make sense?

Will they know what to do next?

You can make educated guesses.

You can test.

You can stare at the page for the 50th time.

But eventually you’ve learned about as much as you can from testing it yourself.

After launch, the questions start answering themselves.

Instead of wondering whether people understand something, you can see whether they actually do.

Instead of guessing which features matter, you can see what people use.

Instead of polishing things nobody notices, you can spend your time fixing the things people actually struggle with.

That seems like a much better use of effort.

And Yes, I Still Haven’t Launched

There is some obvious irony in me writing this.

The project I’ve been talking about still isn’t live.

I’m close.

Very close.

And there are still a few things I want to finish before I open the doors.

I think they’re worth doing.

But I’m also becoming very aware that there will never be a morning when I look through the entire site and think:

Perfect. There is absolutely nothing left I could improve.

That day isn’t coming.

There will always be another sentence I could rewrite.

Another button I could move.

Another little bit of padding I could adjust.

Eventually, the next useful step isn’t another tweak.

It’s letting people in.

Because you don’t stop improving a product when you launch it.

You just finally start improving it with real users.