Why Iteration Beats Perfection: Fast Feedback for Sustainable Change

Early in her career, a young project manager was obsessed with nailing every detail before launching a new internal program. She spent weeks collecting data, aligning with every possible stakeholder, and polishing presentations. When the project rolled out, it was dead on arrival—too late for the market, too generic for the team. After some tough lessons, she adopted a new rhythm: set a short planning window, share a rough draft of the next quarter’s goals, and invite direct feedback.

There were hiccups. The first cycles were messy, but issues were quickly spotted and fixed. Over time, the team learned the value of getting into motion, making quick tweaks, and avoiding endless hypothesis without experimentation. Quarterly retrospectives became routine: one person would always ask, 'What did we assume, and what was actually true?' Each learning—big or small—drove the next cycle.

Research on agile processes and behavioral psychology underscores this pattern: frequent, time-limited experimentation outperforms ponderous perfectionism. The key is visible learning and adaptation—making 'good enough' better, step by step, by focusing more on what’s next than what’s past.

Instead of waiting for perfect clarity, launch your new system, plan, or project as soon as it’s basically workable. Limit your planning and decision-making to a specific, bite-sized window, knowing you’ll have a built-in chance to adapt. Mark your calendar for a regular feedback session to review what happened, tweak the next phase, and celebrate every insight you harvest. Don’t fall into the trap of waiting until 'someday.' Get moving, iterate, and use each mistake as a step up. Challenge yourself to try this with the next project on your plate.