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“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”
Milton Friedman
I ran a daily standup for 2,000 days.
In 2020 I asked Trends Pro Members to post status updates with three questions:
- What did you ship yesterday?
- What will you do today?
- Where are you stuck?
Hundreds of founders joined and they logged 44,110 standups.
By the end, two or three people posted each day.
I ended the standup on day 2,000 and shipped a book built from the standups the same week.
The book took a week. Ending the standup took years.
Run an experiment. It shows a spark of demand. People start using it, so now you have to keep it working for them. Run eight experiments that each get a little traction and you’re running eight projects you decided to keep by default.
Shipping 12 startups in 12 months sounds great to me. I want to try a lot of ideas and find the few that stick.
The experiments that kinda work are the trap.
A call option gives you the right to buy something later without the obligation to buy it. I want an experiment to work the same way. Upside if it lands. Room to walk away if I’d rather spend the week elsewhere.
I ended the standup, but it took 2,000 days. Walking away sooner takes practice.
Some moves I’m considering to keep experiments optional:
- Ship the experiment with an end date. Let the people using it buy the extension.
- Hand it to someone to run it. The experiment keeps running and I stop being the one asked.
- Presell it against a number. Take orders until a count is hit. Miss the count and the experiment never starts.
- Sell the experiment. Get good enough at selling a small business that handing it over is a move I can make in a week.
A thing that works is harder to end than a thing that fails.
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What rule keeps your next experiment from becoming a commitment?
