37 Signals on Launching Softly

Bernhard Kappe, Tuesday, June 16, 2009 @ 8:13 am

Over at Signal vs. Noise, sound advice on the advantages of launching softly:

... You don’t need a big bang – slow evolution is what you want. Unless you absolutely must “open wide,” abandon the mass introduction strategy. Instead, launch softly.

Restaurants start off by serving friends and family before they invite the media.

Movie studios use test screenings to fine tune movies. The people behind the scenes know that until you get into the test screenings and see what people really think, you just never know.

Likewise, Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock try out jokes in small clubs before hitting arenas...

Soft launching lets you tweak and revise. You get the word out there and you gauge interest. You know what works and what doesn’t.

Plus, you get to make mistakes while you’re still in the shadows. Messing up in front of a smaller crowd means you’ll be better off when the bright lights eventually do shine upon you.

Dead on, as usual, from the authors of Getting Real. It's what we advise clients and prospects, and when they follow it, their chances of success dramatically increase.

Topics: Agile Development, agile thinking, product launch

Comments (2)

Software Development

Comments: 2 so far

Hi Bernhard.. I would be interested to hear what you would have to say regarding the business philosophy of 37signals vs the E-myth.. http://www.purlem.com/blog/?p=38

Comment by Marty Thomas, Friday, July 24, 2009 @ 10:17 am
Horowitz made several interesting points about this. One, you might not even want everyone to be a creator since this spectrum naturally keeps the signal to noise ratio in check. If everyone were creators, then things might get very noisy very quickly. Second, each of these groups is inclusive…the lurkers includes the creators, as creators aren’t always creating. They lurk, too.

Comment by zhuzhiyan, Friday, September 11, 2009 @ 8:25 am

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