Build One Inch at a Time
What's the smallest thing you can ship today? Make it smaller, point the frame at the right thing, and get that one piece right before you move on.
Novelist Anne Lamott keeps a one-inch picture frame on her writing desk. It reminds her that on any given day, she only has to write what she can see through it. Building software works the same way.
We took this approach on a complicated digital platform we built for a major public transit system. It pushed real-time, targeted service alerts to screens on subway platforms. We started with one text box, one Publish button, and one test screen.
We also get into:
- How zooming out to the big picture can freeze a team
- Why "just give the API all the fields it needs" is a trap
- How premature optimization tempts backend engineers and AI coding agents alike
- What Nest got right before it got the hardware right
- When thinking small can bite you
