An open letter from a former Facebook and VMware engineering executive on how startups can best structure their release processes.
Great article that very clearly explains how business model and deployment model decide between having a predictable, quality-focused schedule versus âship fast, break thingsâ schedule. Also depends on the company culture.
Predictable, quality-focused (slow)
- Customers pay high $ for your product (they need it)
- Product is deployed to customerâs devices - slower iteration time to get it to the hands of customer due to outside forces like app store review
âShip fast, break thingsâ
- Customer gets product for free (they want it, keep them hooked with frequent updates)
- Cloud based deployment means quick iteration time to correct anything that goes wrong.
Key takeaway: Just because you are a start-up doesnât mean you should ship quickly. You can do it when there are no paying customers and you have nothing to lose, after that you have to pick one of the two paths based on the above factors.










