It’s best to be flexible.
Every company has goals it is working towards. They’re generally about the bottom line, lead flow, revenue growth, target clients, product improvements, personnel… no organization wants to stagnate. With this culture of constant change, innovation and improvement comes the need for timelines and deadlines. Everyone in the organization is affected by organizational changes, so everyone needs to be updated on progress. Target dates are set to promote a sense of urgency and make others aware of when changes will take place.
The thing is, life doesn’t always go as planned.
After our new UI release took a bit longer than expected (because, really, what software release doesn’t?) We thought we’d make light of the situation with a little comic strip for your entertainment. Let’s use a hypothetical situation to stereotype how different teams within our organization think about deadlines, shall we?
Goal launch date (according to Executive team): “The end of next week.”
Sales Team (Ever the optimists)
What they say: “It should be ready by Monday!”
The slightly-more-honest interpretation: Monday is magical thinking, but it is technically next week…
Marketing Team (Spin it positive)
What they say: “It’ll be ready any day now!” or “As soon as humanly possible.”
The slightly-more-honest interpretation: Never too specific to avoid being wrong, but gets people excited about the launch without actually promising anything on a specific date.
Development Team (Down in the trenches but don’t want to be the bearers of bad news)
What they say: “We’re told to have it ready by next week”
The slightly-more-honest interpretation: “…but realistically it could take longer than that.”
The moral of this story? The best laid plans of mice and men/ Often go awry
Timelines are really just a best guess as to how long a process will take. We’re all human, so be flexible about timelines; it’s the best way to stay positive. Personally, I’d rather an update take a bit longer and be less glitchy than the other way around, wouldn’t you?
