The Rule of the Arrow

Time to market matters more than you think. We all like to focus on quality and innovation and there are definite downsides to being date-driven. However, each day in your schedule for a revenue-producing feature is like a millimeter shift in your aim of a long range arrow. A minuscule change in your aim, left or right, could result in a massive difference down field.

For example, you are getting no revenue from a new feature right now, so there is a bias to delay release because there appears to be no opportunity cost, certainly not today and maybe not in the next couple months. But in six months, after it takes off and you are making money, you will look back and wish you had released it earlier. After all, by that time, every day you could have released earlier would be that much more money today. It’s a similar bias as the one we have with saving money and compound interest. You know that if you save $10 today and invest it, it will be worth a lot in ten years. But $10 doesn’t seem like much to save, so you don’t.

Don’t sacrifice quality and innovation, but also do not pretend that day-for-day slips aren’t material in the long term. Every day matters and future-you will thank present-you for hurrying up.

Matt McCloskey believes that art and entertainment are intrinsically good for society and helps creatives make money. He has over 20 years experience in e-commerce, video games and video (AT&T, Xbox, Halo, Twitch).