Too Hard to Pronounce

Barely Releasable.

September 26, 2008

The “Getting Real” methodology that 37signals uses for their software has resonated with me for quite some time, though it took me a little while before I actually began putting it into practice. Because they make money from the talks and books they sell on the methodology, they often find new ways to reframe the advice. The language Jason Fried used at the recent Web 2.0 Expo really struck a chord with me.

You want to cut your feature set until you’ve got software that you’d think is just barely releasable.

One hard-to-overcome mental barrier I’ve had to the whole “less software” idea is the visceral, nagging sense that if I release a really lean piece of software, it won’t make the impact that it should on the market. Ultimately, I only want to release that which I consider “releasable.” The mindset of striving for “barely releasable” releases is one that I can definitely relate to in order to get those rapid iterations out the door, rather than holding onto things too long.