Principle: GEPO and FPO

"Good Enough, Push On" (GEPO) has two uses. First, it can be used as a meeting principle to respectfully close a topic that has run out of intellectual steam. "Let's GEPO this." Second, it can be used as a design principle to counter balance the healthy but wasteful tendency to make something perfect. Not everything needs to be a Cadillac. Good Enough, Push On. 

"For Position Only" (FPO) is a rough iteration to get client feedback, before wasting time and effort that may be headed in the wrong direction. Here's what Seth Godin has to say about it:

When creating a layout, designers put low-resolution, imperfect, non-final images, all marked "for position only." They exist to help the client understand the gestalt of the piece and to give feedback.
They're temporary, parts of a whole ready to be replaced with the real thing once the big picture is locked down.
And the concept works in just about every project, every conceptual structure we seek to put together.
We act 'as if', then we worry about the polish at the end, not at the start.

GEPO is all about closing a conversation or task when enough energy has been given to it. FPO is all about keeping a conversation or task open, but pausing to check assumptions and get feedback. 

Brian TaralloComment