The Battle Between Shipping and Perfection: A Designer’s Dilemma

In large organisations, the goal isn’t always to deliver the best thing. It’s often just to deliver something—something that works well enough to ship.

To be fair, this isn't because stakeholders don’t value quality. It’s because the real challenge in these organisations isn’t perfection—it’s inertia. Projects in big companies are like heavy cargo ships in a busy harbour: it takes immense effort to get them moving, and once they’re underway, steering them in a new direction is slow and difficult. The focus is often on keeping things on course, not necessarily optimising for the best outcome.

Why Perfection Gets Lost in the Shuffle

Let’s zoom out for a moment. In big companies, shipping is not just a step in the process; it’s an Olympic-level feat. Every project competes for attention and resources, while facing endless risks: organisational politics, misaligned priorities, and dependencies that could derail it at any moment. Stakeholders often measure success not by how groundbreaking the solution is, but by whether the project crossed the finish line at all.

That’s why “good enough” becomes the goal. A minimally viable version can be celebrated internally, validated externally, and iterated upon—at least in theory. The problem is that many projects don’t actually get revisited post-launch. Once the “passable” version is out, everyone shifts focus to the next initiative, leaving the mediocre solution to quietly ossify.

Designers, aware of this pattern, push back. We know this might be the only opportunity to get it right, so we advocate fiercely for the research, exploration, and refinement we believe the problem deserves. But to stakeholders, this passion can feel like obstruction.

The Reality of Complex Systems

Here’s the thing: big companies are complex systems, and complex systems are messy. They’re not optimised for outcomes; they’re optimised for outputs. As designers, we might dream of creating the perfect bridge, but in reality, we’re often laying planks across a stream while everyone shouts, “Just get to the other side already!”

Does this mean we should abandon our commitment to quality? Absolutely not. It does, however, mean that we need to recalibrate our approach.

How Designers Can Balance Craft and Shipping

1. Embrace Marginal Gains
   Perfection is often unattainable, but progress isn’t. Instead of fixating on delivering the ideal solution, aim to make the product marginally better than it was before. A small, incremental improvement that ships is more impactful than a flawless idea that never sees the light of day.

2. Reframe Research
   Stakeholders often view research as a time sink because they assume they already understand user needs. Instead of pitching research as an exploratory exercise, position it as a tool for risk reduction: “A quick usability test could help us avoid costly rework later.”

3. Ask Better Questions
   When challenging assumptions, focus on questions that move the project forward rather than bogging it down. Instead of debating edge cases, ask, “What’s the most critical problem we need to solve to ship this successfully?”

4. Align with Stakeholder Goals
   Stakeholders aren’t anti-design; they’re just pro-shipping. Align your efforts with their priorities. For example, if the goal is to deliver a feature that satisfies a high-value client, focus on making that specific user journey as seamless as possible, even if other aspects remain imperfect.

5. Be Strategic About Pushback
   Save your battles for issues that genuinely impact the project’s success. Pushing back on every detail dilutes your credibility. Instead, prioritize the changes that will have the most significant impact.

6. Prototype Early and Often
   Nothing builds trust like a tangible solution. Get something into stakeholders' hands quickly, even if it’s rough. Seeing a prototype—even a scrappy one—helps stakeholders visualise the value of your ideas and reduces resistance.

The Art of “Good Enough”

The ultimate irony is that shipping something “good enough” doesn’t mean abandoning craft. It means channeling your expertise into solving the right problems within the constraints of the system. It’s about making peace with trade-offs and recognising that, in a complex organisation, shipped mediocrity is often a prerequisite for future greatness.

So the next time you’re tempted to push for perfection, take a step back. Ask yourself: “Is this the hill I want to die on? Or is there a way to make this marginally better and get it live?”

Remember, the perfect design is rarely the one that wins awards—it’s the one that makes it into the hands of users and starts making a difference.