Of course you have to build things in steps. The idea is that you build something smaller/simpler first that delivers some value to the customer that requires w

Of course you have to build things in steps. The idea is that you build something smaller/simpler first that delivers some value to the customer that requires way less steps than the complicated thing. Building a car requires many thousands of steps/tasks, a skateboard requires much less. It's easier to estimate how long a skateboard will take to build, therefore making it more likely to be done in a reasonable time, giving you the ability to give your customer a better transportation option than walking. That then buys you time to work on the next more complicated option. And so on. The other point that should be made about this process, is that it gives your customer a chance to realize they don't really need that complicated big thing. Maybe you build them the bike and they realize that's perfectly sufficient for their needs and then they just say the project is done. You'd never have that opportunity if in the same time it takes to build a bike, you're 25% done with an unusable car. Most customers vastly overestimate the solution they need. Your goal as a product manager is to build incrementally and constantly challenge the problem definition.