Jason Fried, co-founder of 37 Signals, has a unique product development principle that I really like: build the wacky thing first.
When teams are in the early stages of new product experimentation, when the stakes are low, and the experience is mainly in a sandbox for early adopters, there’s clear rationale for building the wacky thing first.
If we default to the conservative, constrained, or timid option from the start, it’s unlikely we’ll have the courage to try the wacky idea later. Users will acclimatise to the tame baseline, and it’ll be more difficult to break those expectations in the future.
However, if we start with the wacky idea, we’ll likely learn more from being bolder and more aggressive in the first version of our product, and we leave the door open to scale back the experience to a less wacky version later. There’s greater optionality and upside that comes with building the wacky thing first, but it takes commitment, conviction, and a willingness to look a little silly to do it.