You've done your trials, you've done your tastings, the product tastes good or even really good, and your team is happy with it.

But you're still not launching your food or drink product.

Because what if it could be better? What if you tweak the sweetness just a little bit more? What if you try one more flavour sample? What if it's not perfect yet?

Here's the truth. It will never be perfect.

And waiting for perfection is costing you more than you realise. Because I see food and drink brands getting stuck in this trap all the time and it's keeping great products off the shelf.

The Client Who Couldn't Launch

Let me tell you a story about a client I worked with recently. We'd been working together for months on their product. We'd gone through the trials, we'd done hundreds of tastings. We identified what I call their flavour North Star. So we matched the product to that benchmark.

The product tasted really good.

The team signed off the samples. They signed off the scale-up process and the product as well.

But the founder kept hesitating. They kept saying, "I think it's too sweet. Can we reduce the sweetness a bit more?"

So we did another round, reduced the sweetness, tasted again.

"I think it's still a bit too sweet."

Another round, more adjustments.

And at this point, I had to stop and ask them a question. "Why do you think it's too sweet?"

They said, "Because when I taste it, it's too sweet for me, I wouldn't drink this every day."

And that's when I realised what was happening. They were judging the product based on their own personal preferences, not based on the strategy we agreed on, not based on their target consumers, based on what they personally liked.

The Question That Changed Everything

So I asked them, does this product match the benchmark we identified at the start? The one you said was the flavour profile you wanted to go for?

Tasted their product again. Tasted the benchmark.

Yes, he admitted. It was a match.

So I said, so the sweetness level is where we agreed it should be?

They replied, yes, but I still personally think it's too sweet.

And this is where I had to be very direct with them.

Your job isn't to create a product that you love. Your job is to create a product that your target consumers will love.

And those are not the same thing.

Why Food and Drink Brands Hold Back Ready Products

This happens so often with food and drink brands, and I totally understand why.

You invested so much time, so much money, so much energy in this product. You want it to be perfect, of course.

But here's the thing. You're not your target consumer.

Maybe you prefer less sweet products, but your target consumers prefer sweeter products. Maybe you like intense flavours, but your target consumers prefer something that is milder. Maybe you think that your product is too thick, but actually your target consumers like the texture the way it is.

And if you keep adjusting the product based on your personal preferences rather than your target consumer preferences, you're going to end up with a product that you love, but no one else does.

So the question isn't, do I personally love this product?

The question is, does this product match what my target consumers expect and want?

The Checklist That Got Them to Launch

So with my client, I walked them through the checklist we agreed on at the start of the project.

Does the product match your North Star? The benchmark you identified? The answer was yes.

Does it match what you promised to the customers? A plant-based chocolate drink that tasted indulgent? Yes.

Are the flavours recognisable? Can you taste the chocolate? Yes.

Are the flavours balanced? Is anything too strong or too weak? No, it's balanced.

Does this match the expectation of your target consumers based on the market research and the benchmark product they already buy? Yes.

So based on all of that, the product is ready to launch.

So you can imagine my client's response was, "But I still think it's too sweet for me personally."

And I said, that's fine. You don't have to drink it every day, but your target consumers will.

And that was the moment it clicked for them. They realised they'd been holding the product back because of their own personal taste, not because the product wasn't ready.

They launched the product, the product performed so well they were out of stock in a few weeks.

And you know what? Some customers indeed said it was a bit too sweet for them. But some customers actually said they wish it was sweeter.

Because the reality is you can't please everyone. And that's okay.

You'll Need to Tweak After Launch Anyway

Here's something else I always tell my clients. You will need to tweak your product after launch anyway.

I know that sounds frustrating. You want to get it perfect before you launch. But the reality is you won't know everything until you have real consumer feedback at scale.

Your internal team, even with proper sensory training, is a small group, maybe 5 to 10 people. Even if you do consumer testing before launch, you're testing with what? 20, 30, 50, maybe 100 if you're lucky.

But once you launch, you're getting feedback from, hopefully, thousands of customers. And that feedback is going to tell you things your internal team never could.

Maybe you thought the strawberry flavour was perfect, but consumers wanted it stronger. Maybe you thought the texture was great, but consumers found it a bit too thick. Maybe you didn't realise the product settles in the bottle and consumers are getting inconsistent experiences.

You can't predict all of that before launch. You learn it after launch.

So the approach I always recommend is launch and learn. Get the product to a place where it matches your strategy, it matches your target consumers' expectation, is consistently good. Then launch. Then listen to your target consumers, then iterate.

Planning to tweak your product three to six months after launch is normal. It actually is smart. That's how you create products that really connect with your target consumers.

But if you wait to launch until you think it's absolutely perfect and will never need any changes, you'll be waiting forever.

You Cannot Please Everyone

And here is the other thing you need to accept. You cannot please everyone.

Some people will think your product is too sweet, some people will think your product is not sweet enough, some people will love the texture, some people will hate the texture.

And yes, that means some people won't like it. And that's fine. They are not your target consumers anyway.

I see this all the time where a brand will get one piece of negative feedback and panic. "Someone said our product is too sweet. We need to reformulate immediately."

But when you look at the data, 95% of customers love the sweetness level, it's just that one person doesn't. And that person probably isn't your target consumer anyway.

So you can't let one voice or even a few voices derail your strategy. You need to look at the overall feedback, look at the patterns, and make strategic decisions based on that, not based on individual preferences.

The 5-Question Checklist: Is Your Product Ready to Launch?

So how do you actually know when your product is ready to launch, you may ask?

Here's the checklist I use with my clients.

Question 1: Does your product match your North Star?

What I call the North Star is the benchmark product you identified at the beginning. The flavour profile you agreed was right for your brand, your product and your target consumers.

If it doesn't match that benchmark product, you're not ready. You need to keep working on it or maybe revisit the benchmark product and your North Star.

But if it does match, then you are on the right track.

Question 2: Does your product match what you promised your consumers?

If you're positioning your product as indulgent and premium, does it taste indulgent and premium? If your positioning is light and refreshing, does it taste light and refreshing?

There needs to be alignment between what you're telling your customer to expect and what they actually experience.

Question 3: Are the flavours recognisable?

If you're saying strawberry, can people actually taste that strawberry? If you're saying it's supposed to taste like chocolate, can people taste chocolate?

It sounds obvious, right? I've tasted products where the flavour is so weak or it was so masked by off-notes of the base that you couldn't actually tell what it was supposed to be.

Question 4: Are the flavours balanced?

Is anything too strong or too weak? Are there off-notes that are dominating everything else? Is the sweetness overpowering the flavour? Is the saltiness overpowering the flavour?

Balance is key. And if you train your team on objective tasting, they should be able to identify if something is out of balance.

Question 5: Does this match the expectations of your target consumers?

Not your expectations, your target consumers' expectations. Based on the market research you've done, the benchmark products they already buy and you identified, the flavour profiles they already enjoy.

If your product delivers on those expectations, you're ready.

This is exactly what I going through with my client with my Fix package and Choose package: a structured process that gives you a clear flavour strategy with a focus flavour North Star so decisions are anchored in analytical decisions, not personal preference.

When You Should NOT Launch

Now, I want to be clear. There are times where you should definitely hold back on launching, where your product is genuinely not ready.

For example, if your product has major off-notes that you can't mask, if it tastes fishy, earthy or bitter in a way that is unpleasant and you know your target consumer won't tolerate it, don't launch yet.

If your product is inconsistent batch to batch, if one batch tastes great and the next batch is completely different, you have a manufacturing issue that needs to be fixed before you launch.

If your product doesn't match your North Star at all. So if you set out to create something premium and sophisticated, for example, and what you end up with tastes cheap and artificial, clearly don't launch. Go back and figure out where it went wrong.

And another example, if your team is still saying something is off, but we can't really pinpoint what it is, then you need to do more work. Because if you can't articulate what's wrong, then you can't fix it. And if you launch it anyway, customers will also feel that something is off, even if they can't articulate it either.

So I'm not saying launch products that are not ready. I'm saying don't hold back products that are actually ready just because they're not perfect according to your personal taste.

Launch and Learn: The Strategy That Wins

So if we go back to my client who thought the product was too sweet, they launched and like I said, in a few weeks, they were out of stock.

But they started to get consumer feedback. And yes, a few people said it was a bit too sweet for them, but the majority of feedback was positive. People loved the taste, they loved the texture, they loved the sweetness.

And that's not to say the product is now perfect and will never change. They're still gathering feedback, they're still listening to their consumers, they may make some tweaks down the line.

But at least they are on shelf, they are selling, and they are getting real consumer data. And they are iterating based on that data, not based on the founder's personal taste.

And that is how you build a successful product. Launch and learn, not wait for perfection.

Is Your Product Actually Ready?

So if you are sitting on a product that's been ready to launch for months, but you keep on tweaking it just because you're not sure it's perfect yet, I want you to ask yourself this:

Am I holding this back because the product genuinely isn't ready? Or am I holding this back because of my own personal preferences?

If your product matches your North Star, if it delivers on what you promised your consumers, if the flavours are recognisable and balanced, if it matches your target consumers' expectations, then you're ready.

Launch it, get on shelf, start gathering real consumer feedback and iterate from there.

Because every month you wait is a month your competition are on shelf building their customer base. It's a month of lost revenue, it's a month of lost learning.

Perfect doesn't exist, but good enough to launch with a plan to iterate, that's the strategy that wins.