Incrementalism

Lately, I’ve been stuck on the idea of “incrementalism.” Ideally, architectures and processes should be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. We tend to tear things down and throw them away rather than slowly make them better.

I wrote this for Optimizely

The Power of Incrementalism

I’m convinced it’s because incrementalism is boring. We don’t like the predictable, behind-the-scenes movements that go unnoticed in the short term. We like big gestures – standing ovations, organizational attention, and slaps on the back for “a job well done.”

And I’ll point you back to one of my favorite and most enduring talks:

• As a webinar: Why Content Projects Fail, for Optimizely (2020)
• Live on stage in Denmark: Why Content Projects Fail, at Codegarden (2017)

I’m reminded of David Hobb’s book Website Product Management which argues that a website is a product that should keep growing over time, rather than be thrown away and rebuilt over and over.

I feel like there might be my next book in here somewhere.