In Software Development, one of the key measurements of a productive team is Time to Market — how long it takes from starting a task to releasing it to the end-customer. This metric captures the speed of the entire development effort. However, it can vary widely between tasks, making it difficult to understand exactly where bottlenecks occur.
I propose focusing specifically on the timeframe from when a change is first submitted for review / testing, until its release to production. This approach allows us to assess the efficiency of our quality assurance and release processes. Ideally, anything that has been approved should already have passed through a quality check sufficient to allow it to be shipped to customers immediately after final approval.
If we conduct resource-intensive end-to-end tests, these might occur regularly on our development environment, but not for every new change. In such cases, releases must wait until those tests pass before deployment to production can proceed.
If we rely on manual testing, we might gather several changes and then organize a manual testing process. This makes each release a more structured event—a “ceremony”—which increases the perceived value of that metric. But remember: less is more here!
Why is this important for online-business builders?
We often work on the product with the goal of making it perfect before releasing it to the public. This is similar to the manual testing process—no mistakes are allowed, but the automation process may not yet be good enough. We end up delaying feedback while putting effort into areas whose value is still uncertain.
It’s better to release an imperfect product early, gather feedback, and iterate. Since your product currently has zero customers, the risk of exposure is low, but the potential for learning is high.
What’s the message?
Just put out what you have!
🔥 Don’t be afraid; be proud!
🔥 Forget the results—enjoy the process, and the results will come.
🔥 Done is better then perfect
That’s also why I publish this blog: to keep going and to learn. It’s unfinished and far from what I want it to be, but I truly enjoy the process.