Sally Carson of The Fixpert

Getting over yourself and just shipping it!

In this interview Sally talks about why it took her 10 years before she was able to ship her first product and how to overcome the jedi mind tricks, OCD perfectionism, and failurephobia. It might have have had a little something to do with the fact that she was making good moula doing UX design for big startups in high places and getting lots of praise for it.

So the moral…is…SHIP IT, for frack’s sake! It won’t be perfect. It will require iterations. People will tell you they hate it, or worse, not care a lick about it. Family will lie to your face and tell you how much they like it. If you’re really lucky, you might get a few die-hard fans who truly love it.  But it doesn’t really matter in the end. You just have to ship that first product, because it will just get easier every time. And really, what is the alternative? Living a life where you hide that one part of you that is heart-achingly passionate about, “x, y, or z?” Yeah, ummm, no thanks. I think I’d rather stab pencils in my eyes.

What have you been waiting to do? What product, painting, book, e-class, event, have you been wanting to ship, but haven’t? It’s ok. I know. You’re scared. It’s not ready. Ohhhh, it’s ready!

If you feel like you need a little encouragement, just listen to these three songs that my electro-pop band, Agitprop, (it sounds bad-ass right? It’s really just me and my man. Sshhhhh), just posted to Sound Cloud. We didn’t think they were good enough, or that anyone would give a flying shit. Eric obsessed over the synth patches and guitar, I hate my voice in them. But we are now on our way, following our dream to play live together. Bam! Take that, FEAR, it’s like we kicked you in the teeth.

<enter annoying ferral cat screaming: “SHIP IT! SHIP IT! SHIP IT!”>

After all, what’s the alternative? We might not have 10 more years, they say the world is ending.

About Sally: Sally recently moved from S.F. to Ann Arbor, Michigan with Tommy who is completing his Ph.D at University of Michigan. They are beginner bee keepers and neat human beings. Tommy is a biologist who studies mushrooms at the University of Michigan while Sally is a cartoonist and independent user experience designer. She has worked with Yahoo Sports, 23 and Me, Katarina Fake’s startup Findery, Edutopia (George Lucas’ education foundation). She has also taught user experience at the college level. She just finished her first full length comic book, an auto-biographical comic book about being a bike messenger in New York City just after 9/11.

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