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Fail Fast – A Successful business approach or utter stupidity?

by Scott on November 25, 2009

What does Fail Fast mean to you? I had a very interesting conversation recently with Lisa Young, Head of the coaching team at Simpleology (Sign up for a free account and some awesome tools) and a Direct Sales Speaker, Trainer & Marketing Coach The subject of Failing quickly or Fail Fast came up. It was toward the end of the conversation so we didn’t get a chance to finish it up. It was clear though that we had a difference of opinion on the subject.. at least from the standpoint of how we defined it and believe it to work. The good thing about discussions with intelligent people is that it forces you to refine your thinking and sharpen the logic behind it.

So is Fail Fast the greatest approach to developing a business or is it utter stupidity? Before we can answer that question, we need to define the philosophy of fail fast. Some people also refer to it as Fail Forward Fast so they include the concept of advancing as you go. I will define it in a minute but first I want to tell you a story.

Several years ago I worked in manufacturing. It was a good job and a lot of fun. During that time our team was challenged to completely eliminate reworks. For those not familiar a rework is where you take something you have made that doesn’t fit the required specifications and fix it through additional steps. Sound sufficiently business like yet? Now reworking has been around since man discovered how to make the first hammer. To consider eliminating it was a significant mind set change for us. At the time a significant percentage of our product went through “reworks” to be acceptable to ship to the customer. Eliminating the ability to rework would have a devastating effect on the company profitability and our ability to meet customer orders. At least that was the common wisdom.

A deadline was chosen by the CEO of the company and a decree issued. Now decree might sound like the wrong word but the company was run in a military type fashion. If the CEO wanted it done, it was done. Mainly because he was CEO, founder and majority owner of the company. I always said it was his set of Lincoln logs and he could play with them anyway he wanted too. So the date approaches and everyone is in a panic. We are working round the clock trying to clean up all the product we have in the rework pipeline. The deadline is Sunday night at midnight. Orders from on high had already come down that anyone running reworks after that point would be terminated.

So midnight comes and goes and we enter a brand new world. No longer did we have a process to correct something after the fact. Instead of chaos and destruction, we started reacting quicker. Solving actual problems to prevent things from going wrong. Did we still make mistakes? Oh yea. You can’t be in business without making a few mistakes. So why did we suddenly become much better at fixing things?

Well that brings me back to the definition of Fail Fast. In this system, you design it so that breakdowns happen quickly and earlier in the process. Fail Fast systems are developed to quickly provide feedback. We think of failure as a very bad word. No one wants to think of themselves as a failure. In school failing brings many tears and wails of agony… well maybe not that bad but we all get the picture that failure in our society has been given Authority Status. We must do anything to avoid failure. The only way to truly avoid failure.. is not do anything.

So instead of Fail Fast, I think we need a new name for it. We could call it Fast Feedback Systems. Test an idea in a way that has minimal risk to see what part of it breaks. Do it quickly, iterate a solution and test the next version.

Too many people in life think the choices are either perfection or failure. Every business I have been involved in has made mistakes. As an engineer, my job was to design tests to see what would cause something to fail. To create failure on purpose. Purposeful failure creates a willingness to push things to the edge.

Think of the things we wouldn’t have if we didn’t have Fast Feedback systems? The lightbulb, the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, the internet and the list goes on and one.

Buckminster Fuller wrote, “Whatever humans have learned had to be learned as a consequence only of trial and error experience. Humans have learned only through mistakes.”

So how do you start getting the mindset for creating a Fast Feedback System in your life?

1) Take BOLD action – not some wimpy little yea I will try this out but a bold action to create energy and feedback. Don’t think of it as failure but feedback.

2) Find the breaking points – Find the places in the system that breakdown first. Find out why. Pretend you are Sherlock Holmes and discover the clues on why things didn’t work the way you thought they would.

3) Iterate – Used in math for a problem you cannot solve directly. Iteration allows you to find the answer my narrowing in on it. Iteration in business and life systems means to use the feedback you got in Step 2 and try a different method.

4) Change something and repeat Once you know what is breaking, change it. Try something new. It may break too so continue to do testing on it. Find out what works and what doesn’t.

5) Congratulate yourself for being brave enough to face the fear of failure and embrace the joy of action.

If you never want to make a mistake, live inside a bubble. If you want to achieve greatness, take bold action.
Scott Lovingood Signature Fail Fast A Successful business approach or utter stupidity?

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PSS Post in the comments what bold action you are going to take in the next 45 days to reach your goals.

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  • kathymccurry
    Scott - Thank you for being bold enough to provide this insightful post. As an entrepreneur who has been through the rounds of 'failure' and iterations of improvements, I applaud your ability to 'get it'. Most people conceptually acknowledge that mistakes and failures are a necessary part of progress and success. But sadly, the vast majority of companies and people aren't interested in hiring people who have taken chances and experienced the 'failures'. Just an interesting personal observation. Being an entrepreneur takes guts, courage of conviction, a ton of hard work, and a willingness to put it all on the line - and to objectively make course-corrections along the way. What's the best way to explain to prospective employers that this is a good attribute?
  • Glad you liked the post. The best way I know of to explain this to a
    prospective employer is to frame it as what you learned. Rather than
    discuss the perceived failure, present the learnings from it. How you
    changed your approach to the next opportunity. How your experience gives
    you insight into possible ways a project could fail. The automotive
    industry and many others that focus on quality control use a process called
    FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis). The more experience you have in
    "making things break" the better you are at anticipating them and developing
    corrective measures.

    Focus on the improvements you made. The adjustments and changes the
    previous experience had on you and your outlook on projects.

    CEOs can run a company into the ground and still be in demand because they
    bring experience to the table. Learn to position yourself and your
    experience in a positive light. If you made mistakes admit them and discuss
    what you learned.

    In today's job market it is going to be tough as companies are often looking
    for a perfect fit for the job. Keep striving to find the right fit. You
    will find someone who values your experience.
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