(This is one of a series of Software Engineering Maxims Which May or May Not Be True, developed over the last few years of working at Google. Your mileage may vary. Use only as directed. Past performance is not a predictor of future results. Etc.)
"Launch and iterate" is a catchy phrase, but often turns into excuses to launch something sub-par and then never getting around to improving it.
Yet there is a real advantage to being in a market for the long term, launching a product and improving it. Customer happiness is earned over time, not all at once with a big launch.
- This means structuring teams for sustained effort, not big product pushes.
- It means triaging bugs: not everything will get fixed right away, but should at least be looked at to assess relative priority.
- It means really thinking about how to support the product in the field.
- It means not running projects in a way which burn people out.