Bare minimum vs doing it right

Jony Ive, the famous designer of products like the iPod or iPhone, believes the customer can sense whether the designer cared or not when creating a product. That they can sense when someone didn’t put the utmost effort, focus, and thought. And Ive says there is a lot of careless design out there.

In the world of startups, you hear about testing the minimum viable product. Doing the minimum work to prove a hypothesis. But sometimes, the minimum doesn’t work. Sometimes it’s so careless that the customer doesn’t want to continue using a product.

There is a moment when we have to switch from bare minimum to our best. Create the best possible thing we can, because less won’t work. Write the best possible book, create the best possible lesson, make the best possible video. Obsess and care.

When we do the bare minimum for too long, it becomes our standard. We get used to not doing our best, and will cost us money in the long term.

How to know when you’ve done your best? You will feel it. You will know every little nook and cranny of your work. Untill you feel it’s done, don’t compromise unless you absolutely have to.

Take the thing you’re working on. Should you do the bare minimum, or should you obsess about it, care about every little detail and only then ship?

You will feel if you’ve done your best.