Perfecting Your Product: How to Avoid Going Overboard

There is often a thin line between going forward and going backward. Yes, that’s right! It might seem paradoxical, but it’s true.

There is a saying that goes, “the monkey cut his tail until he spoiled it.” A lot of the time, we as humans are culpable of this practice. We try to make something better and better until we spoil it.

That’s why it’s important to remember that there’s a thin line between going forward and going backward. Chiseling away at your product is great. It’s called going forward. After all, your product reflects you, and speaks a lot about your personality. But when you cross the line of perfection and keep going over the boundary, you’ll end up going backward! And this line is very blur.

How are we supposed to know where to stop? Recently, I’ve been working on my new product, which is a language learning course aimed at teaching Portuguese to English speakers. And I’ve been pouring over this product, line after line, and word after word, trying to make it just perfect.

But it came to a point where I remember the story of the poet. He was asked at the end of the day what he had done that day. He said “I put in a comma this morning and removed it this afternoon.”

And often, in creating my product, I find myself in this predicament: going forwards and backwards and sometimes not knowing if I’m going forward or backward.

So how do we get around this human fallibility? There are lots of low quality, flimsy products on the market today, and I want to my product to stand out. After all, my product does not just bring in money. It doesn’t just solve a problem or satisfy a need. It also sells my brand: PC – the brand of excellence.

So how do I avoid crossing the thin line between going forward and backward? Or how do I avoid going overboard when trying to perfect my product? That’s a good question, and I think I’ll employ several techniques:

1. Getting a critical eye to go over my proposed changes.
2. Putting my mind to work – sleeping on it.
3. Read back this article from time to time.

And what about you? How do you avoid going overboard?