Gah! Q3 is coming! We’re all going to die if we don’t ship that feature!

How serious is that deadline, really? 🤔

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Most of what we’re seeing, and setting, as deadlines aren’t real.

(Deadline is so dramatic, btw. DEADline? Your deadline won’t kill you.)

Often a deadline is a hope. A want. A goal.

So the reason for the date is what’s important, not the date itself.

If the reason behind the deadline is clear and important, you get motivation.

If the reason behind the deadline is arbitrary or obscured, you get theatrics.

“deadline” by AI. Doesn’t look too dangerous to me.

There’s a saying, "The dose makes the poison". Everything is poisonous, even water and oxygen for us humans, it’s the dose that matters.

I feel consequences are similar. Size and impact is what’s important there. A small consequence isn’t much of one at all.

Ask the question, “If we get to to the deadline and we didn’t ‘do the thing’ what happens?”

Life has many deadlines that have significant impact. Miss some legal deadlines and you go to jail. Don’t get more money before your cash runs out and you’re bankrupt. Those deadlines aren’t fucking around. You might not be dead but it’s serious, impactful, stuff.

Most deadlines aren’t really deadlines. They’re alignment-dates. Picking a date by which the team feels they can accomplish ‘the thing’. Now everyone involved has something to aim toward. The deadline is really just shorthand for the goal.

And sometimes, deadlines are just plain made-up.

“Let’s get this done by the end of the quarter.”

Why? What’s the reason? If there’s no reason, impact, or repercussions for missing that date - then maybe don’t set a deadline. 

The thing that really gets my goat is when the made-up-deadline turns into an alignment-deadline, which then feels like a real deadline because we forgot that it was made-up in the first place.

When everyone loses their mind about missing a date that was basically picked at random in the first place, it’s all theatrics and pretend.

Here’s where it gets tricky, though. Sometimes a made-up-deadline is an alignment-deadline in disguise.

For folks working on the project it might feel like it was plucked out of thin air but there are real, business critical, reasons for something to get done by the end of Q3 that haven’t been communicated with the team.

If you’re choosing a deadline - be clear why that date matters. Make the reason the point, not the date. Then it’s clearer if it’s okay to adjust the deadline, or not.

If you’re up against a deadline that feels made up - ask about the reason behind the date. What happens if we slip? What’s the consequence?

Maybe there’s something behind it that you don’t know about.

Probably not, though. It’s likely just made up.