Learning Fast vs. Failing Fast

Chris Jones argues that the popular slogans "fail fast" and "embrace failure" have outlived their usefulness because they blur risky experimentation with genuinely preventable mistakes. He proposes reserving the word failure for cut corners, bad decisions, and skipped learning, while treating experiments that do not pan out as learning. Drawing on Tom Chi's framing, he suggests teams celebrate the insights gained rather than praise winners and punish losers. He ties this to product discovery, the phase designed to produce insight quickly and cheaply, and concludes that shipping without adequate discovery is itself a real failure. The piece matters because it gives teams sharper language for judging both risk and mistakes.

01Key takeaways

• Stop using "fail fast" as a blanket endorsement, since it hides the mistakes worth correcting.
• Treat experiments that do not work as sources of insight rather than as failures.
• Reserve the word failure for preventable mistakes such as cut corners, bad decisions, and skipped learning.
• Celebrate what the team learned on the way to an outcome, whether it won or lost.
• Invest in product discovery, since it generates the insights that shape what gets built.
• Shipping without adequate discovery is a real failure worth calling out.

02Key sections

Problem with the failure slogans

Catchy phrases like "fail fast" were meant to counter conservatism, but they obscure the mistakes that actually need correcting. Lumping risk and carelessness together can encourage sloppiness.

Reclaiming the word failure

Failure should describe avoidable problems such as foreseeable security flaws or ignoring a critical customer workflow. A prototype or test that does not succeed is not, by itself, a failure.

Learning instead of right and wrong

Following Tom Chi, the author suggests replacing a success-versus-failure culture with a learning culture. Teams should highlight the insights gained regardless of the outcome.

Discovery is where learning happens

Discovery techniques are optimized for fast, inexpensive insight, whereas delivery aims to ship confidently. Discovery informs what the delivered product should be.

Skipping discovery is failure

Shipping without sufficient discovery is almost always a genuine failure. Teams should save the word failure for cases like not learning.

03From the post

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Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.