Over the past 10 years I’ve created many businesses. If you looked at my business life on a timeline you would see that my first few businesses didn’t do too well, however, as the years went on I slowly became more successful. Why? Because I’ve learned from my mistakes.One mistake I learned to avoid is that you have to move fast when it comes to a product launch. Dragging your feet will kill your launch. Here are six common mistakes that lead to procrastination, and how to avoid them.
1. Not Working Fast EnoughNot meeting your product launch deadline can be deadly. A lot of people are anticipating the launch, including the press and your investors, and if you fail to meet it and don’t have a really good reason, people may doubt your ability in the future. Even if you and your team think that six months or nine months or whatever time you’ve promised seems like a long time…don’t waste it! Get to work right away as soon as you can. It’s much better to finish before your deadline than it is to finish after. I think we are all probably guilty of wasting time when we think we have a lot of it. Here’s my recommendation to avoid doing that: Give your team an internal goal – this is the goal that you are not sharing with the public. The purpose of this goal is to keep your team motivated early on.
Give yourself time to re-evaluate – Your internal goal should be far enough from the real deadline to give you time to evaluate. As things may not go well.
Give yourself meaningful landmarks to hit – Your internal goal should be made up of five or six landmark goals that gauge your progress in a meaningful way. For example, you could set a goal for prototypes, user testing round one, etc. 2. Unsure About The ProblemA slow product launch might be caused by you and your team not understanding the problem your product is supposed to fix. This could lead to a number of problems: Confusion – Not everyone is on the same page, so when you communicate to your team what you want, they hear one thing because they understand the problem differently.
Conflict – There’s a chance if you and your team don’t truly understand the problem that you’ll end up fighting. It may even come across in subtle ways, like not putting in long hours or turning in sloppy work.
Control – In a really bad situation you may find yourself fighting for control of the product with other team members. This will surely sink any kind of effort. What I’ve learned from my experience and mentors is to over communicate! If you don’t feel like your team understands the problem, ask them how they see it. Do they have it right and do you have it wrong?It’s important to always ask questions and never assume. It can be easy for entrepreneurs to ignore people or advice, and forge forward without taking in consideration what the people around them are saying. Remember, arrogance diminishes wisdom.
Read more: KISSmetrics
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1. Not Working Fast EnoughNot meeting your product launch deadline can be deadly. A lot of people are anticipating the launch, including the press and your investors, and if you fail to meet it and don’t have a really good reason, people may doubt your ability in the future. Even if you and your team think that six months or nine months or whatever time you’ve promised seems like a long time…don’t waste it! Get to work right away as soon as you can. It’s much better to finish before your deadline than it is to finish after. I think we are all probably guilty of wasting time when we think we have a lot of it. Here’s my recommendation to avoid doing that: Give your team an internal goal – this is the goal that you are not sharing with the public. The purpose of this goal is to keep your team motivated early on.
Give yourself time to re-evaluate – Your internal goal should be far enough from the real deadline to give you time to evaluate. As things may not go well.
Give yourself meaningful landmarks to hit – Your internal goal should be made up of five or six landmark goals that gauge your progress in a meaningful way. For example, you could set a goal for prototypes, user testing round one, etc. 2. Unsure About The ProblemA slow product launch might be caused by you and your team not understanding the problem your product is supposed to fix. This could lead to a number of problems: Confusion – Not everyone is on the same page, so when you communicate to your team what you want, they hear one thing because they understand the problem differently.
Conflict – There’s a chance if you and your team don’t truly understand the problem that you’ll end up fighting. It may even come across in subtle ways, like not putting in long hours or turning in sloppy work.
Control – In a really bad situation you may find yourself fighting for control of the product with other team members. This will surely sink any kind of effort. What I’ve learned from my experience and mentors is to over communicate! If you don’t feel like your team understands the problem, ask them how they see it. Do they have it right and do you have it wrong?It’s important to always ask questions and never assume. It can be easy for entrepreneurs to ignore people or advice, and forge forward without taking in consideration what the people around them are saying. Remember, arrogance diminishes wisdom.
Read more: KISSmetrics
QR:
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