Isn't a MicroFAIL much more appealing than this?
Adjust, Tweak, Repeat.
The shorted distance between two points is a straight line. We learned that very early in school. So making a lots of quick, minor changes will result in you and your company's strategic vision to stay closer to that straight line. The longer you wait, the farther from the line you drift. Your adjustments will have to be sweeping, and your FAILs will be greater.
"Fail early, fail often..." or, make a lot of small fails quickly... MicroFAIL.
The more detail oriented you can be in the beginning the better off you'll be. Think through functionality and usability as much as possible, so later on you don't have to make sweeping changes. This is also true on the design side. Don't just glance at the overall mockups. A trick I like to do is stick them in Acrobat or Powerpoint and put link boxes over the buttons and link to the other pages (your AJAX won't work here, though - but wouldn't that rock if it could?). This way, instead of just a wireframe you've got an essentially fully functioning mockup for the site. I'm not a designer, but I like to put these together for the teams I work with. And it doesn't have to be web-related. I cut my teeth preparing these type of docs on multi-hundred-page FDA electronic submissions. It was tedious in those cases, but it works great for preparing financials, business plans, meeting agendas and materials, etc.
One way to identify MicroFAILs, is just use your product. I've seen lots of times where people create prototypes and not really stress test them. QA starts from the prototype, not just the final product. Doesn't matter if you're making software, a drug, or a widget.
The best way to test your business model is to step through the value-chain. How is your product made (starting with the raw materials), packaged, shipped, displayed, opened, used, disposed of? How will you go from contacting your first distributor to waving at a customer as they walk out the door? Now where are the weaknesses in those steps?
When you build a bridge (think rope bridge, not interstate), you don't just jump on it and hope it holds your weight. You stress every cable, very plank, every tie off. The life of your business is at stake.
@msuster has a great post on what a VC looks for before writing a check. Very spot on. The MicroFAIL is a theme you can see woven through his points. Tenacity, the ability to pivot, resiliency.
What are your thoughts on the MicroFAIL? Let me know in the comments.
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