As Brett and I have been working towards our website launch date, we’ve often been faced with the question of time vs. money vs. quality. In my advertising days, we always said you could get two out of three, but not all three. You could have it fast and cheap, but you’re quality would suffer, or you could have it fast and good, but pay through the nose, or you could have it cheap and good, but it would take a really long time.
Recently, however, it seems that we have faced decisions where we need to choose either quality alone or fast and cheap. While we’re very eager to launch, we know we can’t forfeit quality. The experience of our website will represent our brand, differentiate us from our competitors, and garner customer loyalty. We have to hold this above all else.
Which brings us to the big question: We know we want high quality, but how high does it need to be when we launch? Can we step up quality along the way, or do we wait for perfection before launch? My gut says perfection is too high a standard for launch, but there’s a lot of gray between a functioning website and a perfect website, and each shade of gray has time and cost implications. I guess the best we can do is stick to our guns about the experience we want to stand for in our customers’ minds, and make sure we always deliver on that, even if it means pushing back a timeline. At the same time, we need to make sure we’re not sacrificing better in the pursuit of perfect. It’s a tough process, but a great learning experience.
