The more quickly we can get feedback from decisions, the more quickly we can course correct and stay on the path that delivers the most value. This principle applies at many different levels to the process of creating custom software, from investing in fast tooling to deploying completed features. We want to know as soon as possible when we’re getting off track, so we seek feedback from our tools, our colleagues, our partners, and from the people who end up using our software.
To this end, one of the first steps in getting started developing a software product is to create the “pipeline” that validates the software against thousands of potential issues and then prepares to deploy that software. We make it easy for stakeholders to evaluate what we’re building and ensure that there’s no technical barrier to deployment, so the decision to deploy a feature into production is purely a business decision. We pride ourselves on how quickly an idea can be validated and start creating value.
It can be hard to keep up with a fast moving team of software professionals, so we invest in making sure that the whole team is on the same page about the purpose of the product, where it’s headed, what’s next, and what’s most important. As we plan each feature, we focus on the value that the feature delivers, which avoids “delivering” incomplete changes. Once the features are in a production environment, we can start measuring them and see how their performance aligns with our indicators.
One of the benefits of software is that, when properly built, the cost of changing your mind can be much lower than in other types of products. We design our processes to take advantage of that flexibility and continually deliver feature after feature that produces value, until it’s a no-brainer to release publicly.
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