A single type of mistake has personally cost me millions of dollars in my career: failing to constrain scope. Specifically, letting a deliverable drag on for months without simplifying it.
Having a vision is both a strength and a curse. You have a clear picture of the destination. You have the motivation to push forward. But it makes it easy to hallucinate where you currently are today. You can toil for months on a project without any progress, but think you’re doing great. The vision in your head is overriding reality.
The solution is to ship deliverables on a regular basis ⏤ ideally weekly. If a week goes by and you haven’t shipped, cut scope and try again. At a minimum, ship an update. This is especially important when you’ve got a big vision → the bigger the vision, the stronger the potential hallucination.
Also published on Medium.