The hurdle of perfection is one of the hardest to get over when it comes to starting a project. I wonder how many projects I failed to start, because the ideal ending seemed like too daunting of a task. It sounds easy to take one step at a time, but when the main focus is perfection the road will never end, and taking a small step seems like a drop in the ocean.
Using this website as a prime example, I think it is more reliable to define a Fastest Feasible Product (FFP) with a limited scope to achieve goals. If I had started out with an intent to make WordPress or Substack level product, I most likely would have given up by now. The scope of this project is not to create a blog website competitor, and if I really wanted to make a super successful blog, I probably would have just started on one of those sites mentioned previously. I limited to scope to create easy hurdles to jump over, that would fuel me to keep going rather than discourage moving forward. The other criteria I placed on this was to improve or at least post on average of a weekly basis. Combining these two criteria provided me with my FFP, a functional websites that can be posted on a weekly website.
I had this idea of a FFP on my drive home from work today, and even though the concept is not new, it still seems like such a foundational idea for any daunting task. The company I work for has a similar concept for delivering value to customers as fast as possible. This concept allows for two benefits, which benefit both sides. With minimizing scope of a product deliverable the amount of engineering hours spent is minimized, and along with that the investment from the customer from this initial project is also minimized. After the FFP has concluded, if the parties agree that there isn’t a benefit in moving forward then they part ways with minimal investments tossed aside.
Relating how a corporation does this to any personal project is quite easy to do. The benefits are minimizing inputs, and coming to a conclusion of if the project is worth continuing as fast as possible.
I have learned a lot so far into this website project, taking this FFP concept forward will hopefully allow me to start those projects that I wish I had started, but my vision of the perfect end goal deterred me from continuing.