Pre-commitment: The Mistake that Keeps on Giving

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The fictional product manager – we’ll call him Pete – starts work early one Monday, eager to find out how the team is progressing with requirements analysis, design, and (his real goal) scheduling. Pete knows that most of the team isn’t in the office yet – but he gets an email from engineer Ed and picks up the phone.

Ed answers, also glad that someone else is working. They chat a bit, then Pete changes the topic back to work.

“How’s the requirements analysis going? I can’t wait to find out how long v2 is going to take.”

Ed is fairly new to the team, and he enjoys talking with Pete. He replies, “We’re thinking it’ll be about six weeks.”

“That’s awesome! What else have you got going on? Are you going to the agile training next week?”

They hang up, with Pete feeling confident and happy. A calendar reminder pops up, and he joins his weekly check-in with his boss, Brad.

Brad always saves the niceties for the end of the meeting, and quickly jumps in. “How’s the schedule coming? Any idea when we’ll see v2 hit the market?”

Pete pleasantly replies, “Funny you should ask. I was just talking to one of the engineers, and he said they’re thinking it’ll be about six weeks.”

Brad expresses his pleasure. They finish the meeting, and Brad jumps onto his weekly executive status meeting. He’s finally got something good to tell the group! Everyone will be SO excited to know that v2 is only going to take about six weeks.

Neither of them will realize their mistake for a few weeks, when the official schedule is published….and the v2 general release is scheduled for fifteen weeks out. The first call that Product Manager Pete gets is from boss Brad, whose memory for the original date is very clear and marked on his desk calendar.

“You told me six weeks, two weeks ago! By my calculation, that is an eleven-week slip. What in the H-E-double-toothpicks is going on over there, Pete?”
Brad looks bad, because he’s going to have to tell the executives the new date. He hopes that maybe they forgot his proud proclamation….it has been a few weeks ago.

Brad’s angst flows downhill, as evidenced by his phone call to Pete…..who also looks bad.

In the grand scheme of things, though, guess who looks worst of all?

No matter what the development team does at this point, they’re going to look like they took longer than they originally said. They haven’t even STARTED the work yet, and it already looks like a failure. These are the kind of situations that development teams remember – a time when they tried so hard and got so far; but in the end, it didn’t even matter. (Linkin Park reference was intended.)

The issue is that Engineer Ed is fairly new to the team. He had not been burned by early commitments yet – so he was comfortable having a conversation about the schedule. The team really had settled on six weeks…..for the actual coding. Ed gave a coding estimate, and Pete was so happy to hear it that he never bothered to question or validate what he heard. “Code Complete” is not the same as general release. We need to think about testing, rework, and integration time – not to mention organizational readiness and market preparation. While Ed gave an honest answer, Pete should have ignored it.

By repeating a date that he hadn’t validated, Pete set expectations that could never be met. If you want your development team to trust you more as time goes by, you’ve got to be clear and honest about product’s commitments to the organization. Whether you’re pressed for information on schedule or content, always respect that commitments are made by those who do the work.

Never make delivery commitments without your team’s support.

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John Geraci

Founder & Managing Partner
Education:

John had over 40 years of executive leadership before becoming the Founder and CEO of Ci2 Advisors. His prior experiences includes: President at Information Associates, President at BlessingWhite (now GP Strategies), Partner at The Complex Sale, Executive VP at Advent Software, and Managing Partner at Unlimited Connections Consulting. John has also served on the boards of companies like ASM International, TraderTools, and FolioDynamix, as well as being an Advisor to the CEO at SCRA.

When John reflects on his time in executive level leadership, he realizes that effective communication was the leading factor in determining success or failure for business objectives. As the world of work began to change, John knew that communication would be even more difficult to convey effectively, and being about to connect with, understand, and inspire customers would be harder to do than ever – that is why he founded Ci2 Advisors. His passion for this work stems from his belief that when customers feel heard and understood, amazing things can happen within your customer relationships and overall business performance.