Make something happen by making it wrong

Recently, one of our CSMs (Customer Success Managers) at Appsembler was trying to figure out how to get their customer a network diagram that met their security team's needs. Engineering had a few existing diagrams, but they either revealed too much or had a different purpose, and CS didn't want to waste Engineering's time. Worse, the customer had given vague, high-level requirements that weren't illuminated by further questions.

So the CSM decided to make a diagram themselves, and the result was wrong. Which was exactly the right thing to do.

I told them that they'd unlocked a secret management achievement. The best way to get something like this built is to build it incorrectly, and then get people to pick it apart and improve it. The first step is almost always the hardest. Ask someone else to start from scratch and they’ll either (a) delay way too long because the blank page is daunting, or (b) spend a lot of time building something that is great but not what you needed. By making the first draft, you’ve addressed both of these — you un-blanked the page, and you've given your request some boundaries in which to work.

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