Manage Expectations

EXCLUDED FEATURES

You will be irrationally frustrated at some of the features excluded from the beta release of your child. They arrive without neck strength, language, or (hopefully) teeth. For my husband, the fact that a smiling feature set was not scheduled until six weeks after launch was the most upsetting. For me, it was the lack of descriptive error messaging.

As with any roadmap, new features will be available for you at slightly different schedules than consumers of similar products. Someone's kid will talk first, another walks while yours is still figuring out the army crawl. Keep an eye out for dependencies (some missed milestones call for early intervention therapies), but otherwise try to enjoy any extra minute without those blasted baby-proofing locks on your cabinets.

TRIAGE FEEDBACK

Hoo, boy, you are going to get so much feedback. Some of it will be helpful! A lot of it won't be. And it can be very difficult to tell the difference when you're sleep-deprived and extremely suggestible.

An author I like dutifully wrote down every suggestion she and her husband received about how to get their kid to go to sleep. They reasoned that even if each idea only worked for fifteen minutes, sometimes that's all you needed: a brief reprieve.

On the other hand, feedback about big, fundamental principles can wheedle into your brain pan and make you second-guess every interaction you have with your child. Try to build a mental buffer and schedule a time once a week or month to discuss incoming suggestions. It will give you time to mull and prevent you from playing high stakes Simon Says.

Besides, even the best feedback needs to be validated by several rounds of user testing. Better to let the rest of the playground beta test before trying it yourself.