Founders do not ship because they keep adding "just one more thing." Scope lock is the antidote. You write down the one job your product does, and you write down what it explicitly will not do. Then you stop arguing with yourself.
Ruthless cuts are what separate founders who ship from founders who stall.
Bad: "V1 is a productivity suite for teams." That is five products.
Good: "V1 lets a freelancer send an invoice and get paid." That is one product.
Bad: A "not in V1" list with two items. You are kidding yourself.
Good: A list of seven things, each one a feature you almost built.
When the urge hits to add something, re-read the doc. If the new feature is not required for the one sentence at the top, it goes on the cut list. Print the doc and tape it to your monitor if you have to.
A written scope doc with one V1 sentence and at least five cut features. You can show it to a friend in 30 seconds, and they can name what V1 does and does not include.
Founders do not ship because they keep adding "just one more thing." Scope lock is the antidote. You write down the one job your product does, and you write down what it explicitly will not do. Then you stop arguing with yourself.
Ruthless cuts are what separate founders who ship from founders who stall.
Bad: "V1 is a productivity suite for teams." That is five products.
Good: "V1 lets a freelancer send an invoice and get paid." That is one product.
Bad: A "not in V1" list with two items. You are kidding yourself.
Good: A list of seven things, each one a feature you almost built.
When the urge hits to add something, re-read the doc. If the new feature is not required for the one sentence at the top, it goes on the cut list. Print the doc and tape it to your monitor if you have to.
A written scope doc with one V1 sentence and at least five cut features. You can show it to a friend in 30 seconds, and they can name what V1 does and does not include.