[malfist]

This _highly_ depends on your field and what you're working on.

Working on the latest and greatest social media website? Sure, ship early, ship often.

Working on medical devices? You better not ship a prototype.

Working on hardware? Too expensive to pivot from learnings, better get it right the first time.

Working for NASA? You better get it right the first time and predict all future issues that might be possible, and you better document it 9 ways to sunday.

[buildbot]

The parent's point though is it actually doesn't. For example with NASA, there are 1000s if not 100s of 1000s of intermediate goals on a project like SLS. For example, IDK, make sure the engine hits 95% of thrust spec. Hardware? You design each IP in isolation, test in isolation, build up step by step. A0 tapeout, A1 tapeout...etc.