The Power of Iteration

Written by Elyse Ball

In 2021, I wrote a blog about why your first product should be perfectly imperfect. The idea was that we don’t actually know what perfection looks like to our customers until they’ve had several chances to interact with our product, so we should get that product into their hands as quickly as possible.  ​

This blog picks up where we left off: What do we do after we give customers that ugly, imperfect product? We iterate, of course.

Iteration means making small, incremental changes to a product or service, testing these changes, and then repeating the process until it’s grown, and you’ve created something customers love.  
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To get iteration right, there are a few things you need to embrace: 

Establish a strong feedback loop with your customers.
This could mean setting up regular meetings with beta testers or early customers to make sure you are getting that feedback. It could also mean reading online reviews or finding other ways to get brutally honest feedback from the people who are using your product. 
 
Fight the urge to become defensive.
Regardless of how you get feedback, it can be challenging to avoid getting defensive when someone criticizes a product you’ve already worked really hard on. Take a scientific approach exploring all the ways you could improve. If that doesn’t work, consider asking someone who isn’t as invested in the product (like a mentor or intern) to review the feedback and synthesize it in more polite language. I learned some great lessons on this from a slightly weird source: the Cautionary Tales podcast episode on how legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp avoided disaster by radically iterating a Broadway musical. 
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Dig deep to understand the problem.
Don’t accept a surface level explanation for what’s wrong, especially with early iteration cycles where seemingly simple complaints might point to a much deeper problem. Consider using the “The 5 Whys,” the devilishly simple technique of asking “Why?” five times in a row to get to the core of what motivates their customer. 

Set a clear goal for each iteration cycle.
In I-Corps, we always set hypotheses before doing interviews. Setting goals for iteration cycles achieves a similar function of helping you stay focused and avoid getting sidetracked. Without a clear goal, you may end up wasting time on unnecessary tasks or going off in different directions that don't align with what you're trying to learn. 
 
Be agile.
One of the biggest impediments to successful iteration is slow cycles of change. To the greatest extent possible, build your product so that it is easy to change with each new thing you learn. Don’t implement system architectures that will only work if your hypotheses are true, and don’t buy molds to make 10,000 products. Try to use modular designs or do the minimum engineering work possible to implement a change. If you need inspiration, check out The Wright Brothers biography. I was blown away by how they figured out how to build a plane that could be crashed over and over again with easy-to-swap parts. 

​Remember, iteration is a continuous process, just like customer discovery. Embrace the mindset of experimentation and be open to making mistakes – the purpose of iterating is to grow, learn and improve, so take risks and be willing to fail. You’ll be surprised how quickly you learn!

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