Markdown version of Seth Godin's ShipIt Journal
You may have already figured out these reasons for not shipping:
- You might not know enough...
- You might not see clearly enough...
- You might not believe enough, or you might not care enough to do the work.
This booklet requires you to physically write things down, to make the vision clear, to identify what you don't know, and to highlight what you believe.
The caring part is up to you.
(Make 'the project' manageable, finite, time-dated and do-able (or failable). Subprojects are fine.) If you can't write it down, you don't have a project.)
Please give a date and time.
You can list team members, but only one person is responsible. Put a * next to his/her name.
No one cares about boring. We care about the extremes. When you make compromises before you ship (and you will), don't compromise the edges that matter.
- Open ......................... Closed
- Easy.......................... Difficult
- Rights ....................... Responsibilities
- Take ......................... Give
- Fake.......................... Real
- Fast ......................... Slow
- Cheap ........................ Expensive
- Cutting edge ................. Proven
- Risky ........................ Safe
- Disposable ................... Durable
- Solo ......................... Mesh
- Sold ......................... Bought
- Honest........................ Sneaky
- New .......................... Classic
- Me ........................... You
Who are you trying to please?
- The boss
- The board of directors
- Mass media
- Your retailers
- Your competition
- The end user
- Your in-laws
- Current investors
- Potential investors
- Your friends
- Anonymous trolls
- Voters
If so, can you ignore them?
Questions and ideas for the devil's advocate (things to say to slow things down, average things out or create panic or malaise):
If you hear any of these, underline them. If you find yourself saying them, stop yourself.
- It's too soon
- It's too late
- It's technically risky
- It's boring
- It will offend retailers
- There are significant legal issues
- The plant is too backed up to produce this
- It will take too much training to support
- The Media won't get it
- Our industry is too regulated
- The home office won't approve
- There's no room in this year's budget, let's review in a few months
- It might fail
- Our big competitor will steal it
- It's been done before
- It's never been done before
- People will launch at us
Make a list of every internal individual or committee who could slow down, compromise or kill this project.
Make a list of every external individual, organization or entity who could slow down, compromise or kill this project.
Make a list of every internal individual or committee who must embrace this project for it to work. Put a check next to those that have a history of supporting ideas like these...
Be specific. Be a stickler.
(One reason to hesitate is that shipping something opens you to criticism. Another, sneakier reason to hesitate is that shipping also opens you to competition, to people who will then try to overcome your lead, putting you into a race. So, who is about to compete with you?)
List every outcome or event you're anxious about happening.
What would Donald Bradman, the best who ever live, do if this were his project? (of course, this is a great reason to stall, because being the best who ever lived at what you do is an almost impossible standard. If you're going to wait until that happens, you're going to wait a long time, no?)
Since you're not impossibly good at the core skill involved in this project, how will things be different? What will you bring to this project that someone who is truly gifted might not? Okay, let's try again. Given that you're not the Michelangelo of this domain, the Julia Child or even the William Shatner, how can you possibly hope to have a breakthrough? The only solution is to find edges others haven't found, to bring a dynamic others are afraid of. What's yours?
List ten things you could add that would radically or subtly improve your project.
List ten things you could subtract that would radically or subtly improve your project or get it out thte door.
List every element of the project that needs to be settled, designed or approved before you can ship. Don't forget to include the ones you highlighted earlier in this booklet.
Take the items in the previous section and force them into one of four categories, with as many as possible in the first two. The discipline of thrashing is to refuse to move onto the next step until each item is approved, in writing.
- Would skipping this meeting impede our ability to ship?
- Could it be a wiki or Basecamp meeting instead?
- If we have to have the meeting, can we do it in a room with no chairs?
- Can we invite fewer people? How few?
- What's the purpose of this meeting? Pick one of the following and you can only pick one. If it's more than one, skip the meeting.
- Inform people about the project
- Learn opinions or facts that will help you ship
- Discuss the project and gain input from interested parties
- Pitch or approve the idea
- After we've finished, how will we know if the meeting was a success?
How did you feel when you did that? Would you like to feel it again?
Emotional labor is doing the work you don't feel like doing, because that's the work. As Steve Pressfield points out, the act of turning pro is a conscious decision to do emotional labor. If you were a pro at this, how would you do it differently?
"You're not as good as you think you are..." Are you waiting to hear this? Afraid of it? What would it feel like if you did? Make a list of what you might hear instead of that if you actually shipped, shipped something artistic and generous and world-changing. Don't worry if you don't think what you ship is good enough. It is. The scarce part is the shipping.
You earned it. Describe what happened when you shipped. If you want to write down the truth in advance, if you want to describe the end before you begin, go ahead.