Don’t Under Promise then Over Deliver – Just Deliver, Damnit
13 Jan
Stick it to the man!
Just some random musings in the early hours. I remember vividly – back when still at my day job with Caterpillar – reading a blog post by a former freelance designer. He had just moved on from successful freelance work back into working for the ‘man’ because he was about to start a family. For the life of me I can’t find the blog post or the author, but one of his ‘things to do for a successful freelance career’ just popped into my head: As a rule don’t under promise, then over deliver – just deliver.
Back then it made sense, just like keeping your head down in a gun fight makes sense — most people would agree it’s the right thing to do, but it just doesn’t drive home until you’re in the middle of it. But now, after about two years of living in a client-based/freelance-esque environment I can whole heartedly endorse that rule. Why? Simply because underpromising then over delivering sets a bad precedent.
From your perspective, it’s so juicy and enticing to unveil the big surprise to your client. You promised X but you’re delivering X+1! You’re going for the wow factor, the this-guy-knows-what-he-is-doing factor. You’re trying to land this client for life, so you want to make sure they are pleasantly surprised every time you deliver your product. But, from their perspective you may have just done a nice job, but all that surprise and wow-factor gets bludgeoned over the head by the fact that they are forking over money for what you just delivered. So, the next time they fork over money they are going to expect similar results or better, quickly leading to a snowball effect that ends in you under-delivering no matter how hard you try.
Trust me, I’ve fallen into this trap myself. The solution? Simple. Just deliver. There’s nothing wrong with just delivering. In fact, clients love it. You’ll love it, and you wont be killing yourself trying to produce the next big over-delivery.
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