Why shipping fast can slow you down: principles for a smarter approach to building products

That article cover seems kind of random, doesn't it? Well, it's not. I'm sure you know the anecdote of filling a jar with stones of different sizes. If you fill your time with the small stuff, you'll have no space for the things that really matter. What does this have to do with startups?

Speed is a competitive advantage in SaaS. Move too slowly, and competitors beat you to market. But move too fast, and you ship half-baked solutions that frustrate users. Finding the right balance between speed and quality is critical... but many teams get it wrong.

One of the biggest mistakes? Fixating on rigid 1-2 week sprints. Here’s why this approach often does more harm than good, and how to adopt a more balanced approach.

The problem: speed obsession

1. Cadence over quality

Short sprints encourage teams to focus on shipping something rather than shipping something good. When the goal is to push out work every 1-2 weeks, teams often rush to meet deadlines, sacrificing thoughtful design, thorough testing, and user validation.

2. Increased technical debt

When development is rushed, corners are cut. Quick fixes pile up, leading to messy code, bloated interfaces, and features that break easily. Over time, this technical and design debt slows the entire team down, forcing them to spend more time fixing old mistakes instead of building new, valuable features.

3. Unnecessary pressure and burnout

Constantly sprinting forces teams into a reactive mode. Designers don’t have time to validate assumptions, developers are pressured to write quick-and-dirty code, and PMs struggle to keep up with shifting priorities. This creates a cycle of stress, frustration, and ultimately—burnout.

4. Poor user experience

Half-baked features frustrate users. When teams rush to hit arbitrary deadlines, they often release unfinished experiences that cause confusion, bugs, and drop-offs. Instead of delighting customers, the product becomes a source of friction.

5. Shipping without learning

Many founders justify rapid sprints by saying, “We need to ship something to see how people use it and learn from there.”But shipping code isn’t the only way to learn. Teams can validate ideas without writing a single line of code by:

• Talking to users about their problems to understand them deeply.
• Using low-fidelity prototypes to test potential solutions.
• Running surveys (if there’s an existing user base) to gauge interest.

This approach ensures that when something is built, it’s solving a validated problem—rather than just adding to the feature factory.

A better approach: prioritize learning and impact

Instead of treating 1-2 week sprints as gospel, successful SaaS teams optimize for solving real user problems. Here’s how:

1. Identify a small, intensely-painful problem

Most successful startups don’t win by shipping a high volume of features—they win by solving one painful problem exceptionally well. Before writing code, teams should:

• Talk to customers.
• Identify the most critical pain points.
• Validate whether users are excited and willing to pay for a solution.

2. Use prototyping to test ideas

Instead of jumping straight into development, teams should rely on rapid prototyping and user testing to confirm whether a solution works. I know this obvious but I'm constantly surprised by how few teams test ideas before moving to code. This prevents wasted engineering effort on features that might not be needed.

3. Ship in meaningful increments, not arbitrary deadlines

Why 1 week? Why 2 weeks? It's sounds very arbitrary, doesn't it? Why do we force such timeframes on ourselves? Users don't care about what cycle your eng team is on. They only care about their problem, and for them not all features are equal. Some require deep thinking, testing, and iteration before they should go live to make sure they solve the problem well enough. Instead of forcing everything into a sprint cycle, consider focusing on:

• Breaking out of the hamster wheel of dev cycles and prioritising solving the most impactful problems. Ship when a feature is ready and valuable, not just because a cycle deadline exists.
• Prioritizing based on impact, not just effort.
• Baking in time for learning and following up on previously-released features to make sure they become the solution your users need.

4. Balance speed with sustainability

This is more of a public service announcement, having personally felt the unnecessary pressure of meeting a sprint deadline. A fast-moving team is great—but only if it’s sustainable. Avoid the trap of non-stop pressure by building in time for technical cleanup, design validation, and learning. A well-rested team produces better work than a burned-out one.

Why this matters

Teams often think they’re doing well if they ship fixes and features every week. But users don’t care about how often something is released—they care about whether their problem is solved.

For most startups, success hinges on:

• Identifying a painful, high-value problem.
• Solving it effectively with a great user experience.
• Ensuring there’s demand and willingness to pay before over-investing in engineering.

This doesn’t require endless iterations. It requires smart prioritization, user research, and a commitment to solving real problems, not just hitting sprint deadlines. The best SaaS teams recognize that speed is only valuable when it leads to the right outcomes, not just more output.