Ship Small, Ship Often

Last week I spent three days perfecting a feature spec. Fourteen pages. Edge cases covered. Diagrams drawn. 很漂亮 (hen piao liang) - very beautiful document.

Then a teammate shipped something better in one afternoon. Two sentence description and a prototype. That's it.

I wasn't mad. 我在学习 (wo zai xue xi) - I was taking notes.

Kitchen Lesson 厨房的教训

Cooking taught me this before product management did. When I first learned Chinese cooking, I spent hours researching the "authentic" way. Source specific ingredients. Watch fifteen YouTube videos. Read three recipe variations. All before I even touched a pan!

You know what happened? I rarely cooked. And when I did, the result tasted like 焦虑 (jiao lv - anxiety). Overthought.

Now I just start. Make the thing. Usually wrong the first time. But by the third attempt, it's mine - and it's good. 熟能生巧 (shu neng sheng qiao) - practice makes perfect.

Product Lesson 产品的教训

Same pattern in building software:

• 等待完美需求 (waiting for perfect requirements) = shipping nothing.
• 做最小有用的东西 (building smallest useful thing) = learning fast.
• 用真实反馈迭代 (iterating with real feedback) = beats theorizing every time.

Best PMs I know are comfortable being wrong early. They ship a rough version, watch what happens, adjust. Like the first pancake - 第一个煎饼 - never pretty, but teaches you everything about the pan.

Our marketing lead understands this too. Don't wait for the perfect campaign. Test small, learn fast, scale what works.

Ship small. Ship often. Squirrels don't wait for the perfect plan, your product shouldn't either.

说到这个 - speaking of cooking lessons, come make 饺子 (jiao zi - dumplings) with me sometime. I'll teach you while we fold. Best way to learn anything!