Two years ago, the Data Analyst on my team at InCharge Energy had an idea: create a Charger Reliability Index for EV charging stations.
EV drivers are frustrated by broken chargers and the press ran with stories shouting "there are no chargers and the ones out there are broken." And as an EV driver for many years, I can say that pulling up to a charger that is broken is frustrating and a time waster. I have also not had a disasterous close call due to a broken charger yet, and those are the memories seared into your brain.
What if we could measure and publish reliability metrics? Give stations a score based on uptime, successful sessions, error rates, and user experience. Create transparency in an industry that desperately needs it. The concept was elegant.
Everyone on the team agreed it was valuable. We had the data. We had the technical capability. We had the platform to publish it.
We didn't build it.
Fast forward to today: our competitors are launching their Charger Reliability metrics. Press releases. Customer announcements. Industry recognition for "innovation."
They're getting credit for our idea. Except it was never our idea because we didn't ship it.
The Painful Truth: Ideas Are Worthless
Here's what nobody tells you in business school or product management bootcamps:
Ideas are worth exactly zero dollars.
Not "ideas are important but execution matters too." Not "ideas are the first step." Not "ideas have potential value."
Ideas are completely, utterly, entirely worthless until they ship.
You know what's worth something? A mediocre idea that shipped last month and is being used by real customers.
You know what's worth nothing? A brilliant idea sitting in a roadmap deck from two years ago.
The Charger Reliability Index was a great idea when our Data Analyst proposed it. It was still a great idea six months later when we discussed it in planning meetings. It was still a great idea a year later when we deprioritized it for other features.
And it was worth exactly nothing the entire time because we never shipped it.
Why We Didn't Ship (AKA: The Usual Suspects)
These are all the typical reasons good ideas don't make it to production:
"We'll Get to It Next Quarter"
This is the classic product management trap. The idea goes in the backlog. It gets prioritized as "important but not urgent." Every quarter, something more urgent pushes it out.
Launch the new app feature? Urgent. Fix this production bug? Urgent. Respond to this RFP? Urgent. Build the Reliability Index? Important, but next quarter.
Next quarter becomes next year becomes never.
"Let's Make Sure We Get It Perfect"
We wanted comprehensive metrics. We wanted to account for edge cases. We wanted to ensure our methodology was bulletproof before going public.
Meanwhile, our competitors shipped a simpler version that was good enough. They're iterating in public while we're iterating in meetings.
Perfect is the enemy of shipped.
"We Need More Data First"
We had data. But we wanted more data. More coverage. More manufacturers. More time periods. More validation.
There's always a reason to wait for more data. There's never enough data to feel completely confident.
While we waited, our competitors proved you can ship with good-enough data and improve it over time. Analysis paralysis kills.
"Let's Align with Stakeholders"
We needed buy-in from operations. We needed legal to review the claims. We needed marketing to approve the messaging. We needed sales to understand the positioning.
Each stakeholder had valid concerns. Each round of alignment took weeks. Each revision required another round of reviews.
Our competitors apparently decided to ship first and align later.
"This Needs to Integrate with Everything"
We wanted the Reliability Index to integrate seamlessly with our existing platform. Perfect API integration. Consistent data models. Clean architecture.
These are all good engineering practices. They're also reasons to delay shipping.
Our competitors likely duct-taped something together and shipped it. They'll refactor later. Or not. Doesn't matter—it's live.
What We Learned Watching Competitors Ship "Our" Idea
Here's the thing that stings: it was never "our" idea.
Ideas don't belong to the people who think them. They belong to the people who ship them.
Our Data Analyst had the insight. Our team validated the value. We had the capability. But we didn't execute.
Our competitors might have had the same idea independently. Or maybe they saw the need from a different angle. Or maybe they were inspired by something we said publicly. It doesn't matter.
They shipped. We didn't. The idea is theirs now.
Watching them get industry recognition for "innovation" that we discussed two years ago is humbling. And instructive.
The lessons are clear.
1. Shipping Beats Perfection
Done and imperfect beats perfect and theoretical. You aren't really learning until the feature is in the wild.
2. First-Mover Advantage Is Real
Being first matters less than being right, but in this case, the pioneers get the splashy press releases and social posts.
3. Ideas Multiply, Execution Is Scarce
At least three different companies have now launched reliability metrics. The idea was obvious to anyone paying attention to the EV charging industry. The insight wasn't proprietary, the math is not hard or patentable. The execution is what differentiates.
4. Waiting for Perfect Means Never Shipping
One can always find reasons to wait. Competitors who ship imperfect versions learn from real users and improve iteratively. If you try to learn from meetings, you'll get lapped.
5. Opportunity Cost Is Invisible Until It's Too Late
Every quarter we didn't build the Reliability Index, we built something else. Those features had value. But we'll never know if the Reliability Index would have been more valuable at the time.
All That Matters Is That You Ship
Here's the uncomfortable truth that took me years to internalize:
Your roadmap is full of ideas that will never ship. Most of them are pretty good. None of them matter.
What matters:
- Did you ship something this month?
- Are real users using it?
- Are you learning from actual behavior?
- Are you iterating based on reality instead of speculation?
The Charger Reliability Index taught us this lesson expensively. We had:
- A good idea ✓
- Smart people who understood the value ✓
- Available data ✓
- Technical capability ✓
- Market need ✓
We didn't have:
- A shipped product ✗
That last line is the only one that matters. The lessons from the Lean Startup still apply even to mature products.
Ship the Simplest Version Immediately
Don't build the comprehensive, perfect solution. Build the minimum viable version that demonstrates value.
For us, that could have been:
- Reliability scores for just EVgo chargers initially
- Simple uptime percentage as the only metric
- Manual data collection instead of automated integration
- No public API, just a web page with a table
It wouldn't have been everything we envisioned. But it would have been real. And we could have improved it every month based on actual feedback.
Set a Ship-By Date and Mean It
"We'll ship this eventually" means never.
"We'll ship a version of this by end of Q2, even if it's imperfect" creates urgency and forces trade-offs.
Time-box the effort. Ship what's ready by the deadline. Add the rest later.
Optimize for Learning, Not Perfection
You don't know how users will react until you ship. You don't know what the real edge cases are until you have real usage.
Ship to learn. Iterate to improve.
Every month you spend perfecting in private is a month you're not learning from real users.
Make "Shipped" the Primary Metric
Not "roadmap items completed." Not "features in development." Not "stakeholder alignment achieved."
Shipped. Live. In production. Being used by real users.
That's the only metric that matters.
Default to Public Over Perfect
When in doubt, ship it publicly even if it's rough. You can always improve it. You can't improve vapor.
The Silver Lining: It's Never Too Late to Ship
Here's the good news: we're shipping our version now. Finally.
It won't have first-mover advantage. We'll be compared to competitors. We'll have to explain our differentiation.
But it will be real. It will be ours. And we'll learn from actual users instead of theoretical discussions.
And honestly? Being close second with something good and iterating quickly beats being first with a weak feature designed to check a box on a product comparison table.
Conclusion: Ship Your Ideas or Watch Someone Else Do It
The Charger Reliability Index was a good idea two years ago. It's a good idea today. It will still be a good idea next year.
But only if someone ships it.
Ideas are cheap. Execution is everything. All that matters is that you ship.
If you have an idea you've been sitting on—whether it's two days old or two years old—you have two choices:
- Ship something this month, even if it's imperfect
- Watch your competitors ship it instead
Ship your ideas. Or accept that they're not actually yours until then.
What ideas are sitting in your backlog right now? Which one could you ship a simplified version of this month? Don't wait two years like we did.