Fail Fast, Fail Often? No thanks.

When businesses institute a ‘fail fast, fail often’ mantra, they should be careful what they wish for: that it’s not at the expense of critical thinking, the time required for creativity, smart reflection or thoughtful decisions.

Is ‘Fail Fast, Fail Often’ a buzz phrase that annoys? You’re not alone.

In an article by Dan Pontefract, Dan described the moment he heard a colleague announce: “We need to become more agile. We’re not lean enough. I want to see our culture shift to ‘fail fast, fail often.’”

As a buzzword bingo moment, he had just scored the big one. But the point he went on to make is one we’ve been reflecting on. When we don’t fully understand or appreciate a term, the results can be seriously bad. (As Dan goes on to unpack, ‘Lean’ and ‘Agile’ represent very different concepts – but that’s not the point of this story).

Fail fast fail often, is not a phrase to employ without a framework for execution. Originating from Silicon Valley, the real aim is not to fail at all, but to be iterative. To learn and to apply learnings. Sure, to succeed we must be open to failure, but the intention is to ensure we are learning from our ‘mistakes’ (intentional steps) as we tweak, reset, and even redo if necessary.

Done correctly, there is no ‘fail’.