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Why restaurants should embrace 'Fail-Fast' methodology

"When restaurants try something new, they aren’t looking to fail, they are looking to adapt or evolve. Fail fast is evolving, taking risks, and recognizing your weakness and not pushing it when it doesn't work," said Geoff Alexander, president of Wow Bao.

May 13, 2016 by Tal Zvi Nathanel — US CEO, MyCheck

Fail-Fast methodology is very common in the software world since technicians need to know what works and what doesn’t very quickly. To do this, they created "fail fast," an approach that would allow them to try something, get fast feedback and then rapidly inspect and adapt.

Is Fail Fast useful?

Fail-Fast methodology is most useful when there is a high level of uncertainty surrounding something. Operators do not want to jump into a project with such uncertainty. It is less expensive to start working on the project, learn whether it will be a good decision and move forward, and if not, kill it fast before more money is spent. This way, instead of going full out on the project, less money is spent and more knowledge is gained, with minimal risk and exposure.  

Failing vs. learning

According to Geoff Alexander from Wow Bao, the practice may be called "Fail Fast," but fail is not the right word. In his opinion, fail fast means constantly trying things and constantly evolving. It is risk-taking with less chance of failure.

Telling someone that failure is a great way to succeed sounds like a fool's proposition, but this is due to the negative connotation that failure has.

"Fail Fast, Fail Often" may set the wrong tone. The main idea of failing fast is to take risks, and learn from them. It is not about failure. It is about gaining knowledge. The main goal of this culture is to see if an idea will work, and if it doesn’t, then you don’t sink resources into an idea that wouldn’t work and you move on.

Fail Fast culture in restaurants

What does this mean for the hospitality industry? Restaurateurs are constantly looking to have the next best thing. They want their restaurant to adapt to keep up with changing trends, yet don’t want to take a risk with their biggest asset — their customers. Projects like mobile apps, which are still very pretty new, touch many different areas in the front-of-the house as well as the back-of-house, so restaurateurs often ask themselves why they would want to embark on this type of adventure. Test-driving the concept may be a better way.

"When restaurants try something new, they aren’t looking to fail, they are looking to adapt or evolve. Fail fast is evolving, taking risks, and recognizing your weakness and not pushing it when it doesn't work," said Alexander.

By utilizing the fail-fast methodology, a restaurant can quickly recognize if a project isn’t worth the investment, or conversely a perfect fit. After a determined deadline, a restaurateur can look at the results of a new implementation, and know if it is worth putting the time, energy and money behind it.