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How do you know when you’re done with designing a product? I have a suggestion– don’t let the designer decide. Otherwise, you might turn gray and die while the designer continually iterates through improvements of increasingly diminishing benefit. I think there’s something to be said for a) deciding up front the big picture essence of what you want the product to be, b) picking a date for rollout and building a schedule around it, and c) sticking to it. The only way you blow the launch date is if the product isn’t delivering the primary objectives you chose in step a). Will there be minor issues or room for improvement? Sure, but you’ll be on the market, and you’ll be able to start gathering user feedback to iterate into the ‘phase 2′ design cycle.

To paraphrase someone I met recently, “you might have the best thing since sliced bread, or you might have a flop, and the only way to know is to put it on the shelf and find out.” I read that Google’s product design strategy operates around ‘fail fast’, ie. if it’s not going to work, find out as fast as possible so you don’t waste your time. No need to spend 2 years polishing poop if it turns out that’s what you have.

Any other opinions?