Lost for time?

You've got two options to create a project 'wow': You can work until it's done or you can set a time limit for a task to get done as "best you can". In the land of start-ups working until it's done ususally doesn't work- there's simple too many other tasks also have importance. If you look at all the start-ups we've helped it always comes down to one principle, "How do we get something to market quickly?"

We've worked with enough failed start-ups to know that perfection is the death of a start-up. The beauty of a new company is that you can learn from your mistakes quickly- not that your goal is to cause them- but the lessons learned become tools to help you succeed faster. Mistakes are sometimes more valuable than all the right answers. Time boxing helps you focus on getting stuff done to quickly get feedback.

So why are we at ZURB so focused on time boxing? Let's break it down into a few points.

• 1. The goal is the focus, not the time. Yeah, that's a bit backwards considering we're talking about time boxing, but here's the point: By continually focusing on limiting what your doing based on the availability of time, you actually focus on the result. Strange, but true.
• 2. It builds teams faster. Part of growing a team is learning through education and sharing knowledge. The faster you learn, the more the team benefits. Time boxing keeps this exchange of information happening faster.
• 3. Personal satisfaction is high. Nobody wants to struggle through a project that lasts for weeks and produces no results. Completion and instant feedback are two of the biggest factors in employee morale. Time boxing helps keep these front and center.

So on our next project together don't be surprised if we challenge you to time box your next task- it's a tested method for getting great results.

See it in action:

In one coffee fueled 24 hour binge, we helped Second Harvest come up with a campaign. There was no preparation ahead of the event other than some overview of their organizational desires and a introduction of the team.

http://www.zurb.net/zurbwired/

This amazing pro-bono effort was one huge time boxed effort wrapped around hundreds of tasks that had to be made extremely fast. It remains one of ZURB's craziest challenges and proof that time boxing can produce amazing results. It took a day to recover, but we helped raise over 50k.