When you’re 90% done, get ready for the second 90%

“It’ll definitely be ready to launch next week.”

A week later: “I’m confident it’ll be ready next week. We’ll work through the weekend and night.”

A week after that: “It’ll be ready next month, I think. We’re out of coffee pods, can we order some more?”

Anyone who’s worked on launching complex web products is all too familiar with this series of pronouncements. It happens at large companies and lean startups alike. World superpowers too, as we saw with Healthcare.gov. Even the best teams fall victim, and it’s surprising it still happens even after decades of accumulated experience in software engineering and more than fifteen years since web apps hit the market. The delays often set in after most of the technology is built, which is why people don’t realize how off track they are until days or even hours before the planned launch, making it even more infuriating.

We’ve developed a saying at Sawhorse Media, the company behind Muck Rack and the Shorty Awards, that applies to the building of any product: There’s first 90%, and the second 90%.

When you think 90% of the product is built — the code written and tested, the database architected, servers set up, user interface functional — and it feels like there’s only have 10% left to go before launch, it turns out the remaining 10% can be just as much work and take as much time as the first 90%.

That last 10% is just as important as the first 90%. This phase is your chance to make the product sing by refining usability, making the design meaningful, rewriting copy, optimizing speed, fixing bugs and exceptions that only appear when the app is exposed to actual users, adjusting for real-world data and finicky APIs, and tweaking the interface to operate gracefully on multiple devices. You might even have an epiphany while watching people use the product you couldn’t have had before it was built that leads you to change something fundamental.

Don’t sell that last 10% short. We call it the “second 90%” to remind ourselves that after we’re 90% done building something, an equal challenge lies ahead to launch a great product.

ps: Want to work on either 90%s with us? We’re hiring!