Comment by watt
1 year ago
I don't understand why the author chooses to bring up the mantra “make it work, make it right, make it fast“ in a negative light, perhaps he misunderstands where the "make it fast" comes in?
to clarify: "make it right" is the second step, and until you make things work correctly ("right"), that's where the work stops, you have to make the system work soundly. the "make it fast", as in, optimize, comes in only after you have got it right, that all correctness and soundness issues are resolved perfectly. then you can start optimizing it (making it run fast).
it has nothing to do with delivery speed. it has nothing to do with working quickly. it's about optimizing only as a last step.
perhaps the author is lamenting the fact that it is possible for something to sort of "work", but to be so far from being "right" that you can't go back and make it right retroactively, that it has to be "right" from the inception, even before it starts barely working?
I think your last sentence is correct. I think author is saying that you can't make it work and THEN make it right with payment systems.
This is my opinion as well and I've been involved in the audit of a fintech system where auditors had to download EVERYTHING into excel spreadsheets and make the numbers balance before they would sign off on the books. That took a lot of time and money I'm guessing made a difference of at least .1 unicorns in the liquidity even that took place 3 years later.
I think author chose the wrong mantra too!
What happens in fast paced startups is that you ship what essentially is a MVP as soon as possible (i.e. you stop at the "make it work" step) because you need to build your customer base, finances, etc.
A better mantra would've been Facebook's "move fast and break things". But, that only works if you can fix the things later. You wouldn't do it if you're building an aircraft for example.
They said the engineering team followed this mantra, which includes the phrase "make it right". But they didn't. They didn't even bother to find out what they didn't know about fintech before they started building a product.
Given the context in which he used it, I think the misunderstanding you suggest in the first sentence is most likely. Immediately afterward he talks about the time pressure startups face.