The Early Bird Gets The Worm… Or So The Story Goes

Something New

This classic idiom has such a broad use. And while it’s usually applied to the day to day grind or even the early breakfast group, one usage is overlooked: being first on the scene to “something new”. It’s different from the expected social norms and cues. When something new pops up, many people will wait until after (said something) has built up reviews or some sort of reputation and weighed benefit before they give it a try.

Expectations

From my own experience, trying out new things can at times lead to a negative outcome. And thus, it is a healthy response to be reserved or reluctant to test the waters out on such new things. However, every new thing created by reputable individuals or groups needs a target audience group that is in return responsive. And in the new phase (generally referred to as either alpha or beta) testing helps to improve upon that idea and quite often spurs a competitive market for what new thing is being offered. This is, however, without mention of patents and copyrights.

Granted, many of new case studies are in a control group that caters to a group of individuals that are willing to provide feedback and sometimes are open to suggestions on how to improve on the product or service being studied. And it is common knowledge that all this is as expected. As we have a general understanding within the collective that this is the process.

Deliverables

As we start out in new waters with new clients or customers or even amongst team members with a new project, we use test designs to see what does not fit and what does. For some applications, this would be referred to as beta mode and for some others, this could mean A/B testing or split testing. Both are controlled groups, either way. Sometimes before, sometimes after, we take what we got and we present it to the client in hopes of approval.

Getting It Done Early

Some say faster work often leaves more mistakes. While that is true, you can always double check or triple check your work. You might even find out that there are some tweaks to the project by getting it done early. As opposed to taking your time carefully making the right choices. Not saying, “measure twice and cut once.” is a suboptimal method to “hurry up and wait.”, neither are wrong methods. Both require double checking or triple checking. It’s just a matter of making sure the job gets done with care and tact. However, getting it done early could very well be more rewarding. Just as long as you’re not showing out and making others look bad.