Notes on Shipping

Shipping is a skill. Not a talent. A skill you build through repetition, reflection, and the occasional painful post-mortem.

These are rough notes. Collected over a few years of shipping products both at work and on my own.

Ideas are free

The only idea that matters is the one you shipped. Hundreds of good ideas exist in notebooks that will never ship. Ideas without momentum die.

Don't treat ideas as precious. Move on them fast or move on entirely.

Version one is a question

The first version of anything is a question you're asking the world: does this matter to anyone but me? The answer usually comes back fuzzy. That's fine. It's still more signal than you had before.

Scope is your enemy and your friend

A narrow scope ships faster and teaches more per unit of time. A wider scope gives you more room to solve interesting problems.

The discipline is knowing which mode you're in and committing to it. Scope-creeping from "let's ship fast" mode into "let's build the real thing" mode mid-project is where most projects die.

Done is better than perfect

You already know this. You'll still need to be reminded of it. That's okay.

Ship the imperfect thing. Fix what matters after you learn what matters.

The maintenance mindset

Every system you ship, you now own. Some of that ownership is fixed cost; some scales with usage. Before shipping, ask: what does it look like to maintain this in a year?

This doesn't mean don't ship — it means ship with your eyes open.