# Trying costs less than asking
Delivery · principle · https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/05-05-trying-costs-less-than-asking.html

## The reflex

> "I'll ask first whether we're allowed to do it."

You have an idea to simplify sign-up. You prepare a presentation for Thursday's meeting, which will decide whether to raise it with next month's committee.

## The builder's reflex

> "I made a version in an hour. Three people tried it. Here's what we saw."

## Why

An abstract question gets an abstract answer. "Could we simplify sign-up?" opens a debate of opinions. A mockup three people have tried opens a decision. The demonstration replaces the discussion.

Trying has never cost so little. A mockup, a spreadsheet model, an offer page, a script, a poster: with today's tools, AI first among them, a first version takes an hour where it used to take a week. When trying costs less than the meeting that debates it, asking first becomes the slow option.

The real question is not "am I allowed?" but "can it be undone?". A draft, a mockup, a test on three colleagues, a version nobody else sees: those can be undone. Try. A price changed for every customer, a contract sent, data deleted, a message to the whole customer base: those cannot. There, ask first.

Someone who arrives with an attempt and what it showed is bringing information. And if the answer is no, they will have learned something along the way.

## Try this

Take the idea you are saving for the next meeting. Build the smallest version of it that can be shown: a mockup, a calculation, a page, a test message.

Give yourself an hour. Show it to three people it concerns, watch them use it and note what they do.

Arrive at the meeting with the version and the three observations. See how long the decision takes this time.

If you lead a team, write down what cannot be undone. Everything else can be tried without asking you.

No direct access to the people it concerns? Show the version to whoever talks to them: support, sales, the contact at the client. Ask what they would do with it, and check that answer at the first real exchange.

## To discuss

Which idea is waiting for a meeting here, when a one-hour version would settle the question?