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Change in the Last Minute

Scott Belsky Founder & CEO, Behance Recent Posts

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May 6, 2009

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“A number of years ago, on the night before a ...”

DANIEL ZUKOWSKI

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At the conclusion of a long project, the last thing we want to do is change everything up. However, it is only at the end of a project that everyone is fully focused. The holes become more clear and brilliant realizations are most apparent only when the product is practically finished. It is an unfortunate truth that, in such a busy world, we rarely focus on something until we absolutely have to.

At Behance’s 99% Conference this year, Seth Godin talked about “thrashing” and the tendency for everyone to weigh in on an idea towards the end of development - ultimately getting in the way of “shipping” the product on time. It is true that the uninvolved boss or marketing department suddenly swooping in last minute to change things is a nightmare. However, the reality is that people don’t become engaged until they need to.

Some of the most productive leaders we have interviewed suggest that their greatest realizations often come at very inconvenient times - often when it is almost too late to change. The reason is obvious: brain power is concentrated and more able to grasp the tangible outcome of a project only in the final stages. While the team may want to discourage any last minute changes, you will also want to capitalize and capture these insights.

Sometimes you will decide to take the suggestions into account for the next version of the product. Other times, you will want to embrace last minute changes. Companies like IDEO and others that rally around rapid iteration during product development are, in essence, creating many windows of last minute change. Some teams account for last minute changes by making the launch dates artificially early. Whenever the answers become clear, we must act on them.

But whatever you do, don’t discount last minute changes just because of the timing. If you have the patience and strength to deal with last minute change, you are likely to engage more people in a deeper way.

***Behance articles and tips are adapted from the writing and research of Scott Belsky and the Behance team. This article in particular was co-written with Michael Karnjanaprakorn of the Behance Team. Behance runs the Behance Creative Network , the Action Method project management application, the Creative Jobs List, and develops knowledge, products, and services that help creative professionals make ideas happen.

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Join the conversation ( 2 )

DANIEL ZUKOWSKI 2 years 6 months and 27 days ago

A number of years ago, on the night before a major presentation to pitch a multi-million client, I decided that our approach was all wrong. All I had to do was call the agency principal at home at 11:00 pm and convince them. Which I did. My team and I stayed up all night and made the changes. We won the account.
PAUL ROSENFELD 2 years 6 months and 29 days ago

WOW. What an incredibly true and insightful article. I could not agree more with its premise that tangibility and deadlines drives a focus not available at other times. I find myself realizing things at the end of the software dev cycle that I just didn't see when it was on paper. What's critical as you note is the need to also focus on prioritization, ie "Is this new insight critical to fix NOW or wait?" Anybody who espouses rapid prototyping definitely understands that multiple, tangible iterations helps alleviate this issue but as you note, there's nothing like touching a close to final product. Thanks for surfacing this.