The 80% product

Ship at 80%. Not 100%.

The last 20% of polish often takes 80% of the time. And in that time, you could have shipped, learned, and iterated twice.

Why it works

Users don't need perfection. They need their problem solved. A slightly rough solution today beats a polished solution in three months.

The gap between "good enough" and "perfect" is where products die in development hell.

What 80% means in practice

• Core functionality works
• Main user flow is smooth
• Major bugs are fixed
• It's not embarrassing to show

It doesn't mean:

• Every edge case is handled
• All nice-to-haves are included
• The code is perfectly refactored
• Documentation is complete

When to go to 100%

Some things do need the extra polish:

• Security and data handling
• Core monetization flows
• First impressions for new users
• Anything that's expensive to change later

But most features? 80% is enough to learn.