One of the mantras right now in the startup world is “doing your startup lean” and building a “minimum viable product.” The idea is to build something with minimal effort (or even just saying you’ve built it) and see if people want it before you waste a lot of time.

There’s definitely some value to the concept, but if there’s one thing 2011 taught me, it would be that you can take it too far.

We kept Riskalyze pretty tightly held to a small group of beta users. But we probably tried to hit the press a few months too early. It wasn’t a big problem, but comparing our product between October and today, there were clearly things we still needed to learn and figure out.

I haven’t come full circle on this issue. The underlying driver for “ship and learn” is still there and it was incredibly valuable to us as a brand new startup.

But as we watch Verizon announce a major policy change (a $2 fee for paying your bill online or by phone), only to reverse themselves a few hours later, it begs the question: are companies thinking things through? Are they just throwing things out there to see what the reaction is?

Or are they thoughtfully building a new product (or policy), testing the impact with a small group, and then launching publicly after all the kinks are worked out?

That’s the kind of thoughtful company I want to build in 2012. One that takes risks and tries revolutionary things with its beta users, but builds a reputation of stability and trust with the public and users at large.

That’s a tall order but it’s one of my goals for 2012.