Saying No

After reading Fred Wilson's post about saying No yesterday, we had a management meeting where we were discussing what features make it into the re-launch of Judy's Book and which ones we should say no too. It's a difficult conversation and wasn't filled with enough no's.
Without going into the details of the features we're discussing, the trade offs of time to market vs. completeness, quality, and differentiation. We ultiamtely sided with the latter -- but it was a hard decision because we're feeling pressure to show marked improvement in the numbers of our business soon.
This evolution thing isn't easy or fast ....but I have to say that I'm feeling excited and positive about our prospects. Time will tell....and no doubt, I need to practice saying NO more.

Comments

[jayhay]

Great post at SVN related to this:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/230-a-spoon-or-a-jackhammer

[CafeCram]

Greetings Sack:

I found your blog through TechCrunch and I appreciate everything that you are sharing with the community. The transparency and the candidness in your writings is touching. I wish Judy's Book and your team tremendous success as you deliberate the important decisions in the making of the next Judy's Book, version 2.0 beta. Years ago, I was a co-founder of a citysearch-like portal that went broke when our launch date coincided with the bursting of web 1.0. I remember the management meetings and "how can we change our business model" to become profitable type questions. I feel for you and the team and once again, I wish you success. Journey onward. Peace.