(Fast) failure is good
Here at Mu Sigma, I applaud when people fail. Now that may sound mean spirited, but it’s not meant to be. The fact is, we learn so much more when we fail than when we succeed.
The key is that it needs to be fast failure. Not a long, drawn out epic failure after months of hard work and lots of money spent. I encourage Mu Sigma employees to innovate and continually try new things. Sometimes those things don’t work out. And that’s OK, as long as we identify that quickly, so that we can move on and try something else.
Analytics is all about the “What if?” Experimentation is part of the game. So the next time you don’t succeed, don’t worry. Just absorb the knowledge you’ve gained, and go the next idea.
Here’s a good article from BusinessWeek describing the concept of fast failure, along with some examples.