You Can't Just Cut Scope

Ryan Singer on what happens when projects don't finish on time: "If we're at the end of the six weeks and it's not looking good, we can't just cut off what we agreed to that made this thing valuable. We can't just cut the scope and say, 'Oh, well now, we managed to ship inside of six weeks.' That's going to kill everybody's morale."

You promised the zoo. You ran out of time. Now you're suggesting the backyard is "basically like a zoo because look, there's squirrels!"

Your kid is not fooled. You didn't deliver what you committed to. And worse - next time you promise something, they'll remember. The trust debt compounds.

The answer isn't to never commit to anything. The answer is to commit to things you can actually deliver. Smaller promises, fully kept, beat grand promises that get "pivoted" into disappointment.

"We're going to the park" - delivered. Beats "We're going to Disneyland... well, the backyard is kind of like Disneyland if you think about it."