Are you just moving fast or making progress?

The difference between speed and momentum

I’m a big believer in moving fast. Momentum. Let’s start learning ASAP instead of just talking about it.

But moving fast isn’t the same as skipping the thinking work.

I don’t like rushing to ship because “we’ll figure it out later”. What actually happens is that decisions don’t disappear, they just get postponed. And postponed decisions have a way of coming back at the worst possible time.

Speed, for me, doesn’t mean shipping the most. At best, that’s just a correlation.

Being fast is about closing decisions as quickly as possible. My personal cheatsheet:

Close decisions that are reversible and foundational.

Delay decisions that are irreversible and cosmetic.

In other words, being opinionated enough to move, and confident enough to change course when needed.

For example, I’ll pick a direction early. The first version of an architecture or a user journey. Even knowing it’s probably going to change.

That first decision lets everything else move faster. If new information comes along, I change the decision before it becomes legacy.

There’s nothing wrong with changing direction. In my experience, what slows people down is refusing to make a decision that eliminates other options in the first place.