How ‘One More Thing’ Thinking Costs You Growth

Every ecommerce leader has been in this meeting. You’re close to sign-off. The scope is finalised. The team’s ready to design and build. And then someone says it:

“While we’re here, can we also…?”
It’s never framed as a big change. It’s “just one more thing.” The kind of suggestion that feels harmless — even sensible — in the moment. But those extras have a way of piling up. And before you know it, the launch date you committed to has drifted.

The cost isn’t just the time it takes to deliver. It’s the revenue you don’t make while you’re waiting. It’s the customer insights you miss because you’re still behind the curtain instead of in-market. It’s the risk that your project burns energy before it ever gets out the door.

The temptation

Sometimes scope creep doesn’t start at the sign-off stage. It sneaks in mid-way. Or during QA, something else comes up.

You’re two or three months into the work. The team suddenly realises there’s a perfect place on the site where this new feature could also be implemented. Now you can’t un-see it.

Will the launch be perfect if you ship without it? Or can you wait until later?

Pressure is for tyres. You stay strong. You ship what’s agreed, and the new placement goes into the post-launch phase.

That’s not stubbornness. That’s discipline.

The hidden costs of “one more thing”

Scope creep is rarely malicious. It usually comes from good intentions — stakeholders wanting to maximise investment, avoid missed opportunities, or “do it right” the first time. But the reality is:

Delayed launch = delayed revenue. Every week spent in design and build is a week you’re not learning from real customers.
Increased complexity = higher defect risk. More scope means more moving parts, which means more chances for something to break.
Bigger scope = harder testing. QA cycles drag, bugs multiply, and confidence erodes.
More decisions = slower progress. The longer you stay in “what if” mode, the harder it is to get out.

It’s not about perfection vs. speed. It’s about the value you can’t unlock while the work is still stuck in production.

Why phasing wins over the big bang

This is where we make our position clear: we hate the term MVP. Too often, “Minimum Viable Product” means forcing the worst version of an idea into a smaller budget, while forgetting about the outcomes it’s meant to deliver. “It’ll do” doesn’t guarantee you’re stepping onto the stairs to the top of your industry with the right first step.

Instead, we plan for MLE: Minimum Lovable Experience. It’s not the bare minimum you can get away with. It’s the smallest version of your idea that still delivers a meaningful customer impact from day one.

An MLE launch gets you live, learning, and earning sooner. Then you use those insights to decide what’s genuinely worth building next — not what looked good on the whiteboard months ago.

Why phasing wins over the big bang

Even with MLE in mind, you’ll still have to manage the “one more thing” conversations. The goal isn’t to shut people down — it’s to channel that energy into a clear, sequenced plan.

Practical ways to do it:

Remind them that ROI starts at launch. The earlier you launch, the sooner the investment starts paying back.
Show the roadmap. Make it visible when extra features will happen.
Separate “launch-critical” from “nice-to-have”. Use data or customer impact to make the call.
Create a post-launch review slot. Give stakeholders a moment to revisit requests after the dust settles.

Proof in practice

We’ve seen this play out in very different ways:

Brand A shipped in 3 months. Their wishlist became a phased plan rolled out over the next year. Each phase brought measurable wins, and revenue doubled in 12 months. They also got to deliver on customer feedback they wouldn’t have known if they waited, and far sooner.
Brand B delayed their launch by 9 months to add more features. They missed a seasonal sales peak entirely — and it took another year to recover. They slipped on an opportunity to continue their march to #1, and a competitor dominated.
Brand C came to us after a 12-month slog with another agency to launch a single addition to their site. We broke the work into manageable phases, launching each piece as it was ready. Every phase delivered double-digit returns, and they hit their three-year goals for the feature in just six months.

Keep listening after launch

A phased plan only works if it’s guided by real feedback. That means keeping conversations with your customers alive — talking to them, tracking usage, and making sure you know if they love what you’ve shipped or if it’s missing the mark.

This isn’t the place to guess. Your next phase should be shaped by what your customers actually value. More on the how in another article.

One more thing for the roadmap, not for this launch

“One more thing” thinking often feels like “being thorough.” But in ecommerce, every week you delay is a week of lost learning, lost revenue, and lost momentum.

Ship the MLE. Keep the extras in the roadmap. Keep talking to your customers. And remember: pressure is for tyres — not for your launch plan.

JH – The Breakthrough Agency.

We help ambitious ecommerce teams turn their biggest ideas into live, working results faster. Our phased delivery model means you start earning and learning sooner, without the chaos of scope creep slowing you down. If you’re stuck in an endless design-and-build cycle, we can help you find the fastest path to launch and growth.

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