"How do we handle changes and new ideas once we've already started?"

Some changes are expected. There are decisions you can't make until you see a thing that exists, even if it's rough. So yes, there will be on-the-fly decisions after we start. That's normal.

The Problem

The problem is when we're making radical product decisions mid-stream, without user feedback and without showing anything to real people. When that happens, something went wrong earlier:

• We didn't shape the idea enough
• We didn't distill it enough
• We started building before we were comfortable with the plan

You are going to change your mind. You are going to learn things and have to adapt. That's part of the process.

What We Want to Avoid

What we don't want is to commit ourselves to big changes, with big costs, for reasons we're not sure about.

It's fine to:

1. Build something small
2. Look at it
3. Decide it doesn't work
4. Change direction

That's learning.

If we're constantly changing our mind while we're in the middle of building the same small thing, that means we're not taking enough time up front to decide which direction we actually want.

When we're not sure, we take smaller steps. We still move. We just keep the waste small.