A successful man once told me that you will never recognize success unless you experience failure. I guess that’s why shoemakers only make one shoe at a time !! And why my friend makes only one cupcake sample for her wedding cakes !! Why take a chance on doing the whole thing if it doesn’t meet the customers’ needs or expectations?

Unfortunately, development of invoicing software, for example, doesn’t enjoy that same advantage. . . or does it ??!!

Let’s say that the Beta stage is like the “first cupcake”. All the necessary ingredients are in there: invoice template, customer info, lists products, communications. This allows assessment of the true value of functions as well as the overall appearance of the application. It’s the test mode to see how our SaaS application withstands its initial entrance into a crowded public eye.

So the “First Cupcake” hits the clouds; we await the “weather reports”. Lots of sunshine, a southerly wind and small hail follow. Very valuable. Why ? Because each bit of feedback permits us to see a real or perceived failure. We have been given an excellent opportunity to learn. Ergo, we can now recognize success.

First, these weather reports tell us that people have “tasted” the “cupcake”. Secondly, these people have needs and ideas bigger than the “cupcake” we offered! Hence, we begin the “Second Cupcake” – while people continue to eat the “First”.

And so it goes – on and on !!! We continue to listen and respond to our customers’ needs – - creating “Cupcake after cupcake” iteration after iteration – - each one getting bigger and better.

The best part ?
There’s always a cupcake available while we continue to build the “wedding cake”.

When we look back at our Beta offering and see how far we’ve come (and have yet to go) we appreciate all the lessons learned during the refinement of our invoicing application. Taking little steps is a good way to prepare for long-distance running!