Just in Case or Just in Time?

Humans have a need to cover all our bases. Wouldn’t it be nice if…

Yes. It probably would. But nice isn’t good enough.

Not when you’re limited in both time and money. If you are building a startup, I bet you have limitations on both.

I call this feeling of wanting to say yes a Just in Case mentality.

You build thing just in case someone will need it in the future.

This might take the form of a password reset feature.

After all… Wouldn’t it be nice if the customer could just press a button to reset their password?

Yes. It would.

But no customer has asked for it yet.

And it’s not going to make you stand out from the competition.

What it will do is add complexity. One more thing that you need to maintain.

What’s worse, though. Building something Just In Case will block you from building the thing your customer needs right now.

Focus on what your customer needs right now.

Ship a password reset feature when enough customers ask for it.

Think Just In Time, rather than Just In Case.

How do you know what your customers need right now?

Simple. You ask them.

Ask them about their struggles.

Get to know your customer.

We do this at AIYANA, and every week we learn something new that shifts our priorities for the next week.

Last week, we thought we were going to build voice features.

Instead, we built dashboards.

This might seem chaotic, but every shift gets us one step closer to PMF.

If you're not convinced, imagine a backpack. Imagine it holds everything you need for any destination.

Sunglasses and skis. Climbing rope and fishing poles. Etc.

How heavy is it? How fast can you run with it on your back?

That backpack is your Just In Case backlog.

Now, empty it.

Pack only what you need to get to the next supermarket, where you can restock.

How much lighter is the backpack now? How fast can you run?

That’s your Just In Time backlog.

A word of caution: Just In Time is not a replacement for long-term vision.

Quite the opposite.

It is a tool to help get clear about your vision.

The more you focus on getting the next step right, the clearer you’ll be about where you are going.

With that I’ll leave you with two questions and an ask.

Before you close this email, answer for yourself:

What does your customer need now?

How can you speak with a customer today?

And the ask:

If you enjoyed reading this, please forward the email to a friend with a long backlog.

And remember: Just In Time beats Just In Case every time in startups.