Accepting non-perfection is hard

Before starting my current job, I didn’t have a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. I worked in a big company and only had my tasks to complete and then go home. Fast forward to my first app release, delivering an app to thousands of users, and it had to be done on schedule.

I had an itch. An itch for everything being perfect. All bugs need to be fixed. Everything should work all the time in all environments. No compromise whatsoever. So when the release creeped up on us, and we still had some bugs not fixed and I still had testing to do, I panicked. We simply couldn’t fix all the issues. Too much risk and not enough time, a recipe for disaster. I learned very quickly that you can’t fix everything. We sat down, started triaging all issues and decided on tackling the highest priority bugs and punting the rest. It was tough, I felt terrible for letting the app release knowing there were bugs. It’s necessary. It’s natural.

That’s not to say I don’t have that itch still. I’m red from all the itching (gross, sorry). However, I’ve learned to understand risk and reward, and that some bugs inevitably will have to make it through. I started feeling more comfortable with triaging bugs and prioritizing accordingly. With app releases in the double digits right now, things are a bit easier.