Why I ship products before they feel ready
Originally posted on LinkedIn, January 3, 2025.
"If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you probably launched too late." Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, said this, and it has stuck with me.
It is easy to wait for more feedback, the perfect design, or a product that meets every standard we have set for it. But launching early, even when the product is imperfect, creates a huge opportunity:
- Learn from real users instead of guessing what they need.
- Focus on what matters: the value the product delivers.
- Treat early versions not as failures, but as the start of continuous improvement.
The products we now consider great also looked rough when they first launched. When a project still feels "not ready," that may be the right time to put it in front of users.