Interesting take. I think that in a lot of cases it’s about greed (in the taxi and restaurants app examples). If there is a 50% chance they might make many from you, they’ll take the risk, instead of erring on the side of caution and losing some potential revenue.
In the context of product management, it relates also to saying no to customers. When you say ‘yeah, we might do that feature’, you are setting people up for disappointment. It’s much better to say: “we can’t do features 1, 2 and 3 in the upcoming year, but feature 4 will be done in the second half”. By trying to please people, and avoid saying no, you become less trustworthy.
To add to your point, its not only the trustworthiness you have with your customers, it is also the trust and tone you set with your team.
If you overpromise, you push too hard and people could get angry or not want to work with you. It could also place you and the team as underperforming, which is something no one wants to be a part of.
Setting expectations, internally and externally, can go a long way.
Interesting take. I think that in a lot of cases it’s about greed (in the taxi and restaurants app examples). If there is a 50% chance they might make many from you, they’ll take the risk, instead of erring on the side of caution and losing some potential revenue.
In the context of product management, it relates also to saying no to customers. When you say ‘yeah, we might do that feature’, you are setting people up for disappointment. It’s much better to say: “we can’t do features 1, 2 and 3 in the upcoming year, but feature 4 will be done in the second half”. By trying to please people, and avoid saying no, you become less trustworthy.
Anton, I agree 100%.
To add to your point, its not only the trustworthiness you have with your customers, it is also the trust and tone you set with your team.
If you overpromise, you push too hard and people could get angry or not want to work with you. It could also place you and the team as underperforming, which is something no one wants to be a part of.
Setting expectations, internally and externally, can go a long way.