read time: 4.5 minutes
 

Timing is everything.

A while back, I had a client who faced a tough decision.

A new government mandate opened up a previously locked market. They had an opportunity to potentially be the first to offer a solution, but they had to move quickly before their well-known competitor swooped in.

Here's the dilemma they faced:

Should they charge ahead to grab market share, even if it meant winging it a bit? Or should they take the time to plan their approach, knowing that delaying could mean losing first-to-market business?

It’s a situation we’ve all faced -- that tension between acting fast and making sure you’ve got your ducks in a row.

Move too quickly, and you might stumble. Move too slowly, and you might lose your opportunity.

As a Growth Coach, I’ve seen countless clients wrestle with this exact dilemma: when to leap into action and when to meticulously strategize and plan. The right approach always depends on the overall objective and project at hand.

Today, we’ll explore how to strike the balance between acting quickly and planning thoroughly, helping you move forward with confidence and clarity, and feel good about the progress you're making.

Let’s dig in.

The Power of Early Action

Early action means diving into a project with minimal initial planning, letting the process guide you as you go. This is especially powerful in situations where speed to market is critical, or where creativity and iteration are key, and the process itself reveals the necessary direction and adjustments.

Take Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, for example. When Netflix transitioned from DVDs to streaming, they didn’t have everything figured out. They knew streaming was the future, but they didn’t wait to perfect their service before launching it. They acted fast, learned from user behavior, and adapted on the fly. Hastings knew that in this case speed mattered more than perfection. 

[image cred: TechCrunch.com]

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, famously said, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

The same principle is echoed in Eric Ries’s book The Lean Startup. Ries advocates for launching a “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP) to get real-world feedback as quickly as possible. Early action lets you test assumptions, gather insights, and make necessary adjustments before committing significant resources. 

Read more: How to validate your idea (and avoid wasted time & money)

The Importance of Early Planning

 On the flip side, early planning involves detailed preparation before taking any substantial action. This approach is important for complex projects where errors can be costly or irreversible.

Consider IKEA’s expansion into new markets. When IKEA enters a new country, they don’t simply replicate their existing stores. Instead, they invest heavily in market research and planning to understand local cultures, shopping behaviors, and logistical challenges.

For instance, before entering the U.S. market, IKEA spent years studying American consumers and adjusting their product lines, store layouts, and even the size of their beds to fit the preferences of U.S. customers. This careful planning ensured a successful market entry and long-term growth.

[image cred SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]

Good to Great by Jim Collins talks about the importance of what he calls the “Hedgehog Concept.” The most successful companies in his study weren’t necessarily the fastest to market, they were the ones that took the time to deeply understand what they could be the best at and then meticulously planned their strategies around that core competency.

Early planning is essential when the stakes are high, there's complexity and significant investment, your reputation is on the line, and the margin for error is slim. 

Read more: 6 Tips for Starting a Successful Business
 

When to Act vs. Plan

Now let's consider your upcoming endeavor. To determine whether you should act first or plan first, try asking yourself these 3 key questions:

1. Project Complexity:

Simple Projects: If a project is straightforward with few moving parts, early action might be your best bet. For example, launching a new feature on an existing platform might be something you can roll out quickly, testing and refining as you go.

Complex Projects: When a project involves many variables or stakeholders, detailed planning is crucial. Think of entering a new international market or developing a product in a highly regulated industry—these are instances where the cost of mistakes is too high to risk winging it.

2. Risk Level:

Low-Risk Projects: If the downside of failure is minimal, consider acting early. For example, in marketing campaigns where you can easily test and tweak based on results, speed is often more important than perfection.

High-Risk Projects: For initiatives where mistakes could lead to significant financial loss, legal issues, or damage to your reputation, careful planning becomes non-negotiable. A good example would be launching a brand-new product that represents a significant investment and has the potential to make or break your brand.

3. Feedback Importance:

High Feedback Dependency: Projects that rely heavily on user or market feedback should start quickly to gather insights. Startups often operate this way -- launch an MVP, get user feedback, and iterate quickly. This approach is especially common in tech, where customer needs and behaviors can change rapidly.

Low Feedback Dependency: If the project outcome doesn’t rely much on external feedback, take the time to plan. Examples include regulatory compliance initiatives or backend infrastructure overhauls, where the focus is on getting things right the first time rather than iterating.

Takeaway

Knowing when to act quickly and when to plan carefully is a vital skill that can determine your success.

Let’s circle back to my client’s story at the beginning. Here's where we landed: Speed wins in a land grab, but only if you’re ready to adapt on the fly.

We put together a lean, flexible strategy -- enough structure to guide their entry but with room to pivot as they learned more about the new market.

The result? They got in early, helped a commendable amount of early adopters, and were able to refine their approach as they went.

So, what about you?

Is your next move action or planning?

See you next week!
 

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