There is a definite line between making products that delight your customers and going over the top. Many times companies make Cadillacs when their customers would be more than thrilled with a really nice Chevrolet.
This is also true of things you do every day. That presentation doesn’t need to be perfect; that spreadsheet doesn’t always need that extra feature; the house doesn’t have to be perfectly clean. Sometimes good enough is just good enough!
As a perfectionist, I know it can be hard to let go. But I have learned that 90%, and sometimes even 80%, is good enough to call something done. You are the only one who will really notice what that missing bit is. Does it serve the purpose? Does it communicate what is needed? Will it delight your customer? Then it is good enough.
And those products? It is really critical to understand what your customers really want and what will delight them (and what they are willing to pay for that widget you are developing). Sometimes over-engineering your products alienates exactly those customers that you are trying to service. And you can certainly be spending more in product and packaging costs than you need without adding to the perceived value of the product. And let’s remember that it needs to ship too.
I am a big believer in getting things approximately right (back to that 90%) then going into an improvement cycle that allows for course correction and needed adjustments and improvements. This is also where line extensions come in – get out what you can now then do the rest later. Getting to shipping is more critical than perfection. I think the last 10% is often wasted anyway.
At one company I worked for, they introduced a beautiful product. Nice packaging with a reusable tray and really heavy cardstock. But the competition was on lighter paper in shrink film and it was selling like hotcakes. Why did this product fail? Because the product we were offering was too expensive and way more than what the customers were really wanting for the purpose. So this product line failed – it was too good for the market that was targeted. Our competitor got it right – they gave the customer that nice Chevrolet that addressed the need; we made a Cadillac that most consumers didn’t see a need to buy and didn’t see as a significant improvement to the other products available (at a lower price of course!).
Just because you can make it better or more beautiful doesn’t mean that the market will appreciate it. If you know who your customer is and what they really want and value, then stick to what they need and deliver that.
