giphy.com For as long as I’ve been working in tech I’ve heard this oscillating debate about the use of deadlines in projects, with particularly strong opinions from those against them: “I don’t believe in deadlines. They are bullshit created by (predominantly business) people who don’t understand how hard it is to design and build great products. You cannot rush great [design, software, etc.]” I disagree, I believe in deadlines. Not because the date matters, but because they’re a powerful way to influence the behaviour of a team. At the time of this writing, our team at Shopify is busy preparing for Unite , our annual partner & developer conference. It’s the final stretch of six months of work that started when we (internally) committed to launch a bunch of products at the conference.
