The 80-20 Rule 

I’ll tell you a secret! I had not heard this buzz phrase until a week ago. And since then, I’ve heard it four times! It is an exciting concept and makes sense for business and consulting.

You may know this rule in its other guise, “perfection is the enemy of the good.” Let me define 80-20 succinctly and quantitatively. Imagine you have allocated 100 hours to complete a project. The 80-20 “rule” is that you can get 80% of the results in the first 20 hours. Most clients don’t need that last 20% of perfection that will take 80 hours. This is especially true when they are paying by the hour!

I saw the “80-20” reference in a job ad. And then had three conversations about the 80-20 rule for scientists changing careers. Researchers, especially those with a Ph.D.,  have a reputation for focusing on the last 20% of results, as that is where the publication path lies. This focus on getting it all right before submitting anything can be a type of paralysis for making progress and getting results in a business context where the minimal viable product is critical.

I was bitten by this perfection paralysis while working as an astrophysics researcher. I didn’t publish my thesis research before starting work. I was already in my second job when I sent the draft to my collaborators. The feedback was to “run some more simulations to be sure.” Having lost access to supercomputers and machines that would read the tapes where my large files were stored, I moved into professional educator mode without a first-author publication and never looked back.

Creating and leading teacher workshops is an 80-20 proposition. Imagine an electricity workshop for 30 teachers, but you only got $400 of your requested $500 budget. You will naturally gravitate towards solutions that get you 80% of your objectives with the least cost. The teachers are coming in for a “takeaway” that they can transfer immediately into practice. They are looking for the 80% value in the few hours they can spare for your workshop.

Being “on” nearly all day, every day in the classroom makes it easier to feel the urgency for prioritizing what does and does not “need” to be done. You need to have an activity ready for class when class begins.  The lab will be deployed in that minimum viable product state. If you are lucky (?!) enough to teach two sections of the same lab, you can iterate to make it better on the same day! Otherwise, analyzing what worked and what needs fixing is completed over a slightly longer timescale. As the 80-20 rule implies, getting from 80% done to 100% requires more thought and more time.

I’ve been 80-20’ing it for years without knowing I had mastered a business buzz phrase. I  balance getting done with getting it done well. I’ll admit I’m enjoying the freedom to play as a student this year. After the homework is at its minimum viable model and the team has the report drafted, my curiosity drives me into the extra parameter spaces to explore. I can test ideas that may or may not improve the results, and I don’t have to incorporate anything I have done into the report.

This year of exploration and investigation is an anomaly. I’ll get back to 80-20’ing it as soon as I graduate!

(Thanks to Dr. Sarah Egan Warren for letting me know the 80-20 rule was first described by Pareto in 1896.)