Ship at 70 Percent
Stop stalling for the last 30% of information you'll never fully get. Decide and ship when you have most of what you need, then let course-correction do the rest.
The Promise
Stop stalling for the last 30% of information you'll never fully get. Decide and ship when you have most of what you need, then let course-correction finish the job.
How It Works
- Ask which door this is. Reversible (two-way door) decisions get made fast and low, by whoever is closest. Irreversible (one-way door) decisions earn the slow, careful process. Don't run reversible calls through irreversible rigor.
- Set the bar at 70% and move. Once you have most of the information — or the draft carries the core value — decide or ship. The missing 30% resolves faster by acting than by waiting.
- Invest in correction, not prevention. Because you moved early, keep a tight feedback loop to catch what you got wrong. The skill that makes 70% safe is fixing mistakes fast.
In Practice
Waiting for 90% feels responsible, but it makes you slow — and speed is itself a form of quality. Being wrong at 70% and fixing it fast beats being right at 90% and arriving late. The same logic holds for the work: shipping at 70% and improving in the open beats polishing toward a perfection that never actually ships. Reserve the polish for the vital few things that move the outcome. Perfect those, ship the rest at 70%.