I’m routinely involved in discussions with various teams around new software products and features as is the nature of my work. Many times over the years, I have seen technical folks with a passion for what they do, fully armed with knowledge of what can be done, who want to build solutions that are akin to a Rube Goldberg machine!

They are bubbling with passion and good intentions and want to write the Rolls-Royce solution built with titanium, platinum, and gold plating that the market is sure to love due to its Swiss Army knife flexibility!

Unfortunately, as they work through trying to bring to market their vision, they often find themselves frustrated as it’s taking longer than they thought, costing more than they thought, and the market feedback is not favorable and they become impatient for solid deliverables.

I recall working with a partner that did exactly that. They had some really, really good ideas. However, due to cost overruns (think hundreds of thousands) and a lack of tangible progress and deliverables, they finally had to pull the plug and the CEO was ultimately fired.

Here’s the ironic part, one of their ideas we later did build but we took a very different approach. We started small and got feedback from our credit union clients on what they liked and didn’t like and how they would like it to work.

We released a very simple version that was rudimentary and built on it, generating excitement for what could be with them along the way. We released an improvement and a feature here and there. Ultimately the accolades came, and people loved the solution! A solution mind you, that was a great idea that grew out of failed execution.

So the moral of this story I think is summed up nicely in a quote a former mentor of mine once said to me: “Prove it to improve it!” Great advice! So, applying this advice to credit unions in general and all you do think about how you can prove it to improve it. Got an idea for a lending or membership promotion? Why not try it out on a small group and see what works and what doesn’t? Adjust and try again.

Working with a vendor who has an elaborate product with all sorts of whistles and bells? Why not implement a portion of their suite of products and see how that goes and what they are like to work with? How are your members or staff responding? Are you getting the return on your investment you thought you would? Then if it’s a win, use that win to ask for further investment and create future wins. Besides, folks typically don’t like too much change all at once anyhow. If it’s not a win adjust to make it one.

If you go all in up front, you are only imagining what could go wrong or right, and many times your intuition is wrong. If you go with proving it to improve it, you are making improvements based on facts and experience and not conjecture.

What about a new policy at the credit union? Rather than going nuclear, what about a small change, gauge responses, and pivot as needed or roll out the next piece? Prove it is a good policy then put the polish on it!

Should you find with any idea that it’s just not working in the prove it phase, and it’s beyond adjustments, if you do need to scrap it at least you won’t have to throw away an overly large investment. Thus demonstrating to your managers you are competent and made sound decisions about not over investing without good data to prove it out. If the idea is working out in the prove it phase, it will give you added confidence to tackle the next phase armed with actual feedback to get that next step right!