“Think big, act small, fail fast; learn rapidly” -Mary and Tom Poppendieck, Lean Software Development
Originally a four part quote focused on software development, the “fail fast” part is gaining traction among startups. Although many have an opinion as to its merits, I haven’t seen a reasoning for its ability to spread. Here then are some reasons it would be popular, regardless of its merit:
- With the economy where it is, the probability of failure will be higher, and this increases the (perfectly rational) fear of failure. As a result, rewarding failure is a nice psychological judo move, and it encourages more people to start a company knowing the odds.
- The developer driven startups will tend toward analysis paralysis; encouraging failure is a cure for this. (”Ready Fire Aim” versus “Ready Aim Aim Aim”)
- In step with the increasing rate of change, the lean software development methodologies have gained adoption over more traditional linear methodologies. With more developer driven startups, its natural to apply a developer credo to the business planning; hence the adoption of Eric Ries’ Lean Startup methodology.
- “Fail fast” implicitly assumes the only alternative is to “fail slow”. While not accurate, this makes failing fast appear to be the better option.
In an upcoming post I’ll look at some business scenarios where this meme may or may not be true.
