The Quality/Quantity Paradox

It’s a popular saying, “quality over quantity”. Perhaps because of its alliteration and syllabic symmetry. Or maybe it’s because we believe it to be true. But when working in startups, in my experience it can be a dangerous adage**.**

In startup world you often hear “it’s all about execution”. But you also hear the opposite:

• “Move fast and break things.” Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook
• “If you are not embarrassed by your first release, you’ve launched too late.” Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn
• “Fail often so you can succeed sooner.” Tom Kelley, Partner at IDEO consultancy

You get the picture.

I found this conflict between creating quality outputs whilst moving fast and shipping quickly somewhat paradoxical. But then I read the following extract from the book Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work — and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

Quality is the goal, but you get there through quantity. If you’re working on a new idea, stop worrying about getting in first time perfect. Stop worrying about all the reasons why it might not work that’s keeping you on the starting block. Get out your potter’s wheel, and get building.

I feel like I should augment the old saying to align it to the lean startup practices of today. But then again, we already have it: “Practice makes perfect”.

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