Iteration
Iteration is the process of making successive refinements to a product or design based on what is learned from previous attempts.
When teams iterate, each iteration is informed by the prior one, leading to shorter cycles and faster overall progress. This is counterintuitive—it seems like designing everything upfront would be faster, but learning from each step actually accelerates the process.
How does iteration work?
Rather than trying to perfect everything before shipping, teams should design and ship small pieces, learn from them, and then iterate to improve. Teams often need to redesign earlier work to integrate well with new additions—that's expected and healthy.
Quick iteration means quick feedback and enables teams to capture new customers for discovery. Getting feedback early, while still in the "messy middle" of design, helps teams co-create better solutions with customers rather than waiting to validate completed designs.
Why does iteration matter?
Product development is inherently an iterative process. Each step along the way, teams keep layering new learning onto what they've already tested. By continuously testing assumptions and iterating based on feedback, teams are very unlikely to build too much of a product that nobody wants.
Learn more: Product Discovery Basics: Everything You Need to Know
Related terms:
- Hypothesis
- Assumption Testing
- Prototyping
- Continuous Discovery
Last Updated: October 25, 2025