Finishing your product and releasing it to the public is NOT the same as launching your business. You have to test that thoroughly. Keep your product lean and focused so you can iterate faster.

Let me explain;

In working with a number of startups over this year, there is one thing I’ve noticed time and time again. It’s a team working hard to get their first final version ready to hit the public arena and saying “Phew, we’re done, let the cash roll in.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The reason why startups are risky is because of multiple factors, not just the technology. Getting the product free of bugs is only the first step in testing. Now you have to test, iterate and be agile on the business side.

You have to see if people can find the product, if they like it, if they can use it, if they continue to use it, if they’ll tell their friends, if they’ll pay for it, if they’ll click on ads.

It all has to be tested, generally multiple times, to get it right and smooth.

You wouldn’t come up with a new recipe for beer, and then have a Super Bowl ad before getting anyone to taste it? So why would you try and get on TechCrunch until your product was really hot. Do you really need lots of people trialling to begin with to tweak it?

I repeat, you must, must, must test the business as well as the technology.

Of course this relates back to focus – it all does!

If you try and put too much into the first release, then you have more you have to test, more you have to maintain and more you have to tweak. It’s another reason to stay brutally focused on just the core set of features required to create the value for your very focused target segment.

Keep it simple and you’ll iterate much faster.

Make it too heavy and you won’t be able to shift the battleship.

Go get it done!