The trouble with "good enough"

Obviously, stop before you hit the point of diminishing returns. The problem is many operators stop way before this point—and leave proverbial money on the table.

👋 Hey, it’s Wes. Welcome to my weekly newsletter on managing up, leading teams, and standing out as a high performer. For more, check out my intensive course on Executive Communication & Influence.

Read time: 5 minutes

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“If one says ‘red’ and there are 50 people listening, it can be expected that there will be 50 reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.” - Josef Albers, Interaction of Color, 1963

I read this quote from the German-American artist and educator, Josef Albers, and my first thought was:

Oh shit, this totally applies to operators.

If you say “good enough” and there are 50 operators listening, it can be expected that there will be 50 different ideas of what “good enough” means.

This is a problem (and opportunity) for you.

Accurately identifying the point of diminishing returns requires judgment

Most operators understand the concept of diminishing returns.

They might not use the term, but every time they say “it’s good enough,” they’re basically saying:

“I believe I’ve captured the value from spending time on this. If we spend more time, we might add minor gains, but those gains will be smaller and smaller. Therefore, it’s not worth my/our time to continue making this better.”

But the problem is, many people THINK they’ve hit diminishing returns, when they are actually nowhere close.

They stopped prematurely because it’s often not obvious if it’s worth the ROI to make your work product better. There is no hard and fast rule of “if this, then that” that applies to your situation. It’s highly context-dependent. You need to use your judgment.

Here’s an excerpt from my post called Are your standards too low? In defense of raising the bar:

For every team that says “This is as good as it’s going to get,” there’s a doppelgänger team out there who refuses to settle:

This team isn’t just ticking off boxes. They are innovating, challenging assumptions, and pushing the limits of their creativity.

They are always scanning for inspiration and keeping an ear to the ground for what customers want.

They realize they don’t have many levers, and can’t afford to cavalierly pull levers in a half-assed way.

They know there’s a spectrum of quality for any attempt. They know there’s no upper bound for how strong you can be at any skill where there’s craft and judgment involved, including writing, coding, design, sales, etc.

They acknowledge that aiming for a high bar can feel challenging in the moment, but being great at your job is rewarding and fun.

This team knows what excellence is and aims for it, sometimes hits it, and often acknowledges the gap between their vision vs their skill.

The second team doesn’t even realize they have low standards.

So the problem is… you might be the team that doesn’t realize they have low standards.

The opportunity is… you might be the team with high standards already, and if you aren’t, you can decide you want to raise those standards at any time.

What seems good enough, but isn’t

I believe some assessments about “good enough” are more correct than others. In other words, not all 50 people are correct.

Example 1: Shipping a feature

The Navy SEALs say slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. This applies to knowledge work too: Shipping a careless attempt is actually slower net-net.

Let’s say you’re building a new feature.

“Good enough” means the feature adds value to the customer and you get an accurate sense of how useful it is. If this isn’t the case, then it’s not actually good enough.

“Good enough” does not mean, “My manager thought it was okay, so we shipped it and moved onto something else.”

People do the latter, then are surprised when no one is using the feature or customers are confused.

Yes, your customers are confused. Because the UX is confusing.

You do not get to act surprised about this.

The thing you shipped was not, in fact, “good enough.”

Example 2: Unconvincing email

Recently, I received a very annoying email that made me think, “Wow, I want to NOT do what this person is asking me to do, because they sound entitled and framed this ask so poorly.”

One of my pet peeves is when people think an email is “just” an email. No--email is a channel. Simply existing on a channel means nothing. “Good enough” does not mean “I sent out the email.”

What you put in the content of your email is the important part. And there is definitely a bell curve for how good the content is within a channel.

What might the next level of quality look like?

Whenever I post about improving quality, some people say,“But Wes, it’s not reasonable for me to spend 30 hours on every task to make it strong. That’s not sustainable.”

If this is your initial reaction, stop catastrophizing.

Like many things, improving quality is not binary. It’s a spectrum. A work memo could go from “barely decent” to “much clearer" with a few extra minutes of effort.

Instead of going to an extreme, you can move a few inches to the right on the quality spectrum. Pick the items that are most highly-leveraged, and go from there.

You might realize that the next level of “good enough” is quite doable and worth trying.

You might know something other operators don’t know, that leads you to believe that additional effort is worth it. For example, I believe the words we use shape our thinking, and we should be thoughtful with our language—I act accordingly, and have been able to capture value other people have left on the table.

Consider how you might develop an advantage from believing in (and therefore putting more thought into) something that other people think is extra.

Ask yourself:

1. Which tasks or work products tend to get the “good enough” reaction from you?

2. What would the next level of quality look like for these, and what impact might that have?

3. When have you pushed past what others would consider “good enough”? What was the result?

“Good enough” might seem completely subjective, but there’s usually some objectivity involved.

Reflect on where you might be claiming “good enough” too quickly—and whether you want to challenge some of those assumptions.

What’s an area where you set a higher bar for “good enough”—and how has this allowed you to capture value that others overlook? Hit reply because I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for being here, and I’ll see you next Wednesday at 8am ET.

Wes

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