You've heard it before. The client leans back, looks at the draft, and says it’s fine. Actually, they say it’s fine fine fine very good.
It’s a weird phrase. It sounds like a nervous reassurance. In the world of high-stakes manufacturing and digital product design, "fine" is actually a dangerous word. It’s the sound of a plateau. When a product is just fine, it’s forgettable. It’s the beige wallpaper of the marketplace. Honestly, if you’re aiming for a "very good" rating in a sea of "extraordinary," you’re already losing market share to companies that obsess over the microscopic details.
Let’s be real. Quality isn't a static target. It’s a moving one.
The gap between something that is merely acceptable and something that commands a premium price tag is usually found in the final 2% of effort. That’s the space where "fine fine fine very good" transitions into "essential." Think about the iPhone. Or a Porsche 911. People don't buy these because they are fine. They buy them because the quality control is so rigorous it borders on the clinical.
The Psychological Trap of Subpar Standards
We settle. We do it because we're tired.
In business psychology, there’s this concept of "satisficing." It’s a mix of satisfying and sufficing. You find a solution that is good enough to meet the criteria, and then you stop. This is where the fine fine fine very good mentality comes from. It’s the path of least resistance.
But here’s the kicker: your customers aren’t satisficers. Not anymore.
In 2026, the transparency of the internet means that "fine" is exposed instantly. A "very good" product with a slight flaw gets a 3-star review on Amazon, and in the algorithmic world, 3 stars is basically a death sentence. You need 4.8 or higher to even stay in the conversation. When you accept "fine," you’re essentially accepting a slow fade into irrelevance.
💡 You might also like: Arlin Moore Net Worth: What Most People Get Wrong About the 8AM Founder
Dr. Edward Deming, the father of modern quality management, once said that "good quality" doesn't mean "high quality." It means a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability at low cost. But in a luxury or tech context, predictability is just the baseline. It’s the bare minimum. If your output is just fine, you’re a commodity. And commodities compete on price, which is a race to the bottom that nobody actually wins.
Why Technical Precision Trumps General Quality
Let's look at the aerospace industry. "Fine" doesn't exist there.
If a bolt is fine fine fine very good, the plane stays on the ground. There is a concept called Six Sigma, which aims for 3.4 defects per million opportunities. That’s not "fine." That’s mathematical obsession.
When we talk about something being very good, we are often using subjective language to mask a lack of data. In a business context, you should replace "very good" with "within tolerance."
- What are your tolerances?
- Is your bounce rate under 20%?
- Does the hardware casing have a gap larger than 0.1mm?
If you can't answer those with numbers, you're just guessing. You're hoping the customer doesn't notice the seams. But they always do. They might not be able to articulate why a product feels "cheap," but they feel it in the weight, the texture, and the way the software responds to a swipe.
The Cost of the "Good Enough" Loop
There’s a hidden tax on mediocrity.
When you ship something that is just "very good," you spend more on customer support. You spend more on returns. You spend more on "reputation management" because you didn't spend the time getting it right the first time.
Take the software industry, specifically the "Move Fast and Break Things" era. It worked for a while. But now? Users are exhausted. They don't want a beta. They want a finished tool. The companies that are winning right now—like Linear or Panic—are those that treat every pixel as a life-or-death decision. They reject the fine fine fine very good mantra in favor of something that feels intentional.
Intentionality is the secret sauce. You can smell it.
Moving Past the Plateau
So, how do you actually break out of the "fine" cycle?
First, you have to kill your darlings. If a feature is just "good," cut it. It’s clutter. It’s better to have three "incredible" features than ten "fine" ones.
Second, you need a "Red Team." This is a group of people whose only job is to find why your "very good" product actually sucks. They aren't there to be nice. They are there to be honest. In many Japanese manufacturing cultures, this is part of Kaizen, or continuous improvement. You never arrive at "perfect." You just get slightly less imperfect every day.
Real-World Stakes: The 2020s Quality Crisis
Look at the automotive sector over the last five years.
We saw a massive dip in initial quality scores according to J.D. Power. Why? Because companies rushed tech integrations. They thought "fine" was enough for a touch-screen interface that controls your windshield wipers. It wasn't. Drivers hated it. They wanted tactile, high-quality physical buttons back. The "very good" digital solution was actually a functional step backward.
👉 See also: The Dow Jones Index Today: Why the Blue Chips Are Acting So Weird Right Now
This is a lesson in humility. Sometimes, the "fine" new way isn't as good as the "perfect" old way.
Actionable Steps to Audit Your Quality
Stop using vague adjectives in your meetings. If someone says a project is going "fine fine fine very good," ask for the metrics.
- Define your "Non-Negotiables": List five things that must be perfect, even if the rest of the project is just okay.
- The 10x Review: Look at your work. Now imagine a competitor did it 10 times better. Where would they start? That’s your weakness.
- Physical Prototype Stress: If you make physical goods, break them. If you make digital goods, try to crash them. If it takes effort to break, you’re moving past "fine."
- External Audits: Pay someone who doesn't like you to review your work. Their feedback will be much more valuable than a friend who says it's "very good."
The reality is that fine fine fine very good is a placeholder for "I'm done working on this." If you want to build a brand that lasts decades rather than months, you have to find the energy to keep going when everyone else has already packed up and gone home.
True quality is what happens when no one is looking, and when the "good enough" standard has already been met. It’s that extra polish on the underside of a table that no one will ever see, simply because you know it's there. That is the difference between a product and a legacy.
Audit your current projects today. Identify one area where you’ve settled for "fine" and push it until it’s objectively superior. Documentation, user interface, or even just the way you answer client emails—elevate it. The market rewards the obsessed, not the merely capable.