Squeaky Brakes and Happy Customers
The team’s been busy working on new stuff (can’t wait to share!) and thinking about what we want to do next week, next month, next year. Should we fix bugs? Should we improve the stuff we’ve already built? Should we build new stuff? These are questions I love because it’s more art than science. At the end of the day, what drives us is trying to get into the heads of our customers so we can best deliver stuff that brings a smile to their face…”oh cool”…”sweet, that’s what i wanted”…”wow, did not expect that, awesome”…and not everything you build will get that reaction. But it’s all about giving it the best shot. And you can’t do that if you fix bugs all day long, or you make little improvements to the stuff that’s already there. You need a dose of it all, without too much obsession except for trying to figure out how to delight your customers. And sometimes that means other stuff gets left undone, perhaps everything is not perfect, but at the end of the day you did deliver something that was a little ‘wow’.
Anyhow, as I’ve been thinking about this and talking with the team, I couldn’t help but remember a story our CEO just told us. I’ve told it to the team a few times so I’ll share it with you. Basically, he has a car that he absolutely loves – he likes the way it feels, the way it drives – loves it. He loves it so much he bought one for his wife. And she loves it too. Yet, his car has squeaky brakes. And his wife’s car has squeaky brakes. And neither of them care because it’s not about the brakes, they love the car. So my point in sharing this is that sometimes it’s OK to have squeaky brakes. If the car company had spent 6 months trying to build non-squeaky brakes, maybe they wouldn’t have build the other stuff he loves so much. Just something to noodle on.
Heather
