So what makes for good execution?
In answering this question I like to flip it and thing through common themes of failed projects:

• The inaugural project was too ambitious. It took too much time and money to deliver
• The user experience did not convert as estimated in the business goals
• The solution did not scale and could not meed the visitor goals
• The solution was built too complicated and it was difficult to analyze and quickly optimize
• The project did not have the right balance of local effective resource and remote affordable development
• Too much resource was invested in building technologies that already exist.

So how do give your idea the best change for success?
Nothing can replace the critical technology professionals that are required in the beginning of a project. This cannot be outsourced or compromised. It is critical that you have a team that can collaborate with you and define the right approach. I think the simple analogy can be made with building a new house. A great house is one where a team of professionals have developed a great plan and that ensures you will have an aesthetically pleasing house that is both functional and well-built. Get the approach wrong and you will spend a lifetime modifying the house to get it right. Technology development is no different. Get the user experience right and your solution will convert and deliver. Get the technology right and the solution will perform. Get them wrong and you will spend a lifetime releasing modifications on a faulty foundation.

What are the critical decisions that need to be made early on?
There are many decisions spanning across user experience and technology platform that can be made very early on in the project.

• Don’t build everything. Only build what is considered unique. Leverage everything else. Mashups with open source and paid solutions are easier than every and can significantly reduce your time to market.
• Phase your development. Don’t build it all at once. Break the idea into small manageable projects and release often and early.
• Focus on that Golden Feature. Figure our what makes your solution unique and focus on that feature.
• Make quick decisions. Trust yourself and make the decisions you need to keep things moving. A wrong decision is better than no decision and my experience has been that we often over thing things.
• Find the right team balance. The least expensive development solution is not the best solution. Ideas succeed when a talented team of professionals can quickly collaborate and iterate through ideas. Go remote too soon and collaboration quickly turns into administration.
• Find the right expertise. Do not use the same solution for every project. Search the world and find the resource that has successfully delivered using the techniques and solutions you are considering.
• Fund it correctly. You no longer need millions to fund an idea to release but you do need more than $10,000. The right number varies from idea to idea but be careful not to enter into an endeavor without enough gas in the tank.

All of these decisions can be pulled together in a Discovery process. This process typically takes 4-8 weeks and the outcome of this process includes a product roadmap, release approach, technology platform approach, user experience considerations, and program design. This is the key to successful execution.