Continuing in the contrarian tradition that has gained 37 Signals so many devotees (and detractors), Jason Fried shared his views on failure on the Signal vs. Noise blog yesterday. I agree with Jason, in that, while “failing fast” is a neat little concept, it’s just not all that useful. So, in place of “failing fast,” I offer up “failing well,” or, more accurately: iteration.

What exactly is iteration? Its standard definition is: the act of repeating; a repetition. The mathematics definition, however, does a better job of giving us what we’re looking for: Also called successive approximation. A problem-solving or computational method in which a succession of approximations, each building on the one preceding, is used to achieve a desired degree of accuracy (definitions from dictionary.com).

Along with mathematicians, designers should be knowingly nodding their heads. Take the logo design process as a practical example of this concept. We start with hundreds of fast and loose ideas, covering a broad spectrum of solutions. Then, we slowly add, subtract, and tweak until we’ve iterated our way to a (near) perfect solution (and then, of course, make it purple because it’s the CEO’s wife’s favorite color).

At KA+A, iteration is an integral part of every engagement. Whether it’s a brand strategy project, or application development we are quickly and continuously moving in multiple directions at once, and then regrouping to analyze the situation and act accordingly. It’s not easy, though. Be prepared to battle your inner control-freak, perfectionist self. Rapid iteration involves a certain amount of controlled-chaos, and that can be really freaky to some people.

Here are a few more reasons we’re religious iterators:

It’s like failing, without failing
Iteration leads partway down many paths, instead of to the point-of-no-return down a single one. With practice, these partial views into the future allow you to identify the paths that are most likely to lead you to a success so that you can pursue them, and hopefully avoid the ones leading towards failure.

Behind closed doors
You can abandon paths that appear to lead to failure in private. Now you have the opportunity to throw out out the ideas that don’t make sense before they get beyond your four walls.

Practice makes perfect
Have you read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers yet? In it he argues that it’s not innate ability that makes people great; it’s practice. Iterating towards a solution is like practicing problem solving, and, the more you do it, the better you’ll get. You’ll face every new challenge standing on the platform of hundreds of hours of solution and idea generation. Of course, Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to get truly great at anything, so you’d better get after it.

An idea cache
In A Technique for Producing Ideas, James Webb Young says “an idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.” Discarded solutions have value. The more full your sketchbook and brain is of thoughts and ideas (even the bad ones!), the better the chance you’ll have of recombining and repurposing them for future use.

The times are a-changin’
Nothing stands till for long, especially these days. There’s no time to rest an your laurels, so you’d better be thinking about how even the “perfect” solutions you’ve arrived at and implemented can be iterated and improved upon.