It's tough to build digital platforms in a silo. An environment without feedback becomes an echo chamber and unless the project is only made for those within the silo, it's easy to lose sight of the real purpose of the project.

Rather than waiting to "finish" the development of a project to get feedback, a balanced approach allows feedback to be built in from the start. This both helps establish the working parts for the whole system, i.e. getting potential users and customers into the funnel, and helps drive the direction of development. When feedback is captured along the way, it's easier to make a change before making too many assumptions and expend too many resources.

There are countless examples of poorly developed systems, many of which failed to gather feedback along the path of development. The result of poorly designed systems is poor outcomes. The results will only change when the systems change and it's far easier to do so at the onset. By then, the digital environment is taken for granted as it is, when it could be much more.

Seth Godin wrote aboutbroken systems and when is the right time to fix them:

It’s comfortable to ignore the system, to assume it is as permanent as the water surrounding your goldfish. But the fact that we have these tactical problems is all the evidence we need to see that something is causing them, and that spending time on the underlying structure could make a difference.

It's tough to develop the right systems and platforms in a silo. Get feedback along the way. Build better systems for better results.