A few passes of the hands over the box, a few dances around the table accompanied by the sound of bells to ward off evil spirits and the box is ready to go on a journey with our best wishes.
We won’t go so far as to perform rituals involving human sacrifice.
For the moment.
But if we had a candle handy, who knows?
That’s what happens when you’ve done everything in your hands and you’re playing for something very important.
We can only resort to esotericism to see if it increases the odds of the project going well.
Particularly since, in a very wise move, Michael had called the courier company as soon as the team said the package would be ready to go the next morning.
Putting a deadline on the time available stops wasting time on frills.
Applying the “better done than perfect” principle, the critical issue now is that the package is finished by the time the courier arrives.
It is clear that this is a first version, what is called a Minimum Viable Product. It has been developed from an idea to a working version in a few months.
And once this first product is ready, the best step is to expose it to real user feedback.
Before investing more time and effort and money.
Let a real user tell us if they would be willing to invest in it.
The idea for the project came as a result of requests from an American company that was testing another product that we had been developing in parallel for some time.
What this American distributor was asking for made a lot of sense.
But after considering the feedback it gave on the first product, the conclusion was that it was more convenient to develop a new product than to try to adapt the existing one.
It would lose its spirit and its main purpose.
It would lose technology that was key to that first product and its intended uses.
And the new product would gain the freedom to become something much more powerful.
Once the decision was made that the two products would follow different paths, the project began to create a first version of the new product.
Find hardware, design and program software, create the design.
Test, correct, test again.
We now have the first working version with which the desired functionality can be demonstrated.
Now it is time to send it to that distributor in the USA.
So that he can confirm whether this product, created based on his needs and requirements, can have a market.
And that’s where we are.
There are many details to go before it is a finished product.
And we want to make a good first impression.
We already know the quote that “there is no second chance to make a good first impression”.
Against which we have the quote that “the perfect is the enemy of the good”.
The good thing about quotes and sayings is that there are quotes for everything.
So the last few hours are used to create the right packaging, record some basic instructions, pack everything in the best possible way.
And when it’s all done and we see the delivery van parked in front of the entrance.
There’s just enough time left for our ritual of good wishes.
We don’t know if it will help the package to arrive safely at its destination.
But at least we have a few laughs.
We need to release some tension.
Are you clear on how to close a minimum viable product? Closing the when can be a great option.
Are you clear on how to motivate a team working under stress? A timely antics can be a great team-building tool.
I hope no Voodoo lover gets angry with me.
Or at least that I don’t have any dolls at hand.
And besides, who knows? It can’t hurt.
Have a good trip!