Pitfalls of a Client's False Deadline

I write and produce industrial videos. Deadlines and budgets comprise my primary professional challenges. Budgets and deadlines are intertwined and inseparable.

Lately I've worked against a rash of false deadlines imposed by clients. These clients are really covering their own backsides by dictating extremely premature deadlines. They also think they're being clever by manipulating the producer, and the entire production process, into a very tight box. What such clients don't realize is that these schemes, and their underlying motivations, are extremely transparent, and ensure disaster. This doesn't make them easy to address.

Usually these false deadlines arise out of the clients' insecurities, inexperience, and/or unprofessionalism. Without doubt, lack of planning on the part of the clients is the primary driver of the deception. Projects like these almost always materialize at the very end of a quarter, or right before a major project launch or marketing campaign. It's usually pretty obvious that the project is either an afterthought, or it might be somebody's idea of a total sales & marketing solution, or it's a way to burn leftover budget monies. Clients shepherding projects like these typically want to hand their problems off to someone else, usually someone equipped with an enormous magic wand, who will elevate the client's status or career by waving the magic wand and fixing everything.

Here are some repercussions of lack of planning and ridiculous deadlines:

Artificially short deadlines result in insufficient time to budget and plan a successful production.

Lack of pre-production planning results in higher costs. These higher costs usually arise from the fact that you are improvising on location, inefficiently sourcing resources, or "fixing it in post."

Lack of pre-production planning compromises quality because there's no time to do it right.

No amount of wishful thinking and/or prayers will save time and money on your short-deadline production.

Insufficient time causes poor communication.

Poor communication causes nothing but trouble.

Video and multimedia production are time-consuming, collaborative, and expensive endeavors. I often compare production to building a house. I ask clients, "How would you want your house built? Fast and good? Fast and Cheap? Cheap and Good?" The example is a bit cliched, but it's true.

If a deadline feels suspiciously short or unreasonable, question the client. Ask hard questions. Demand honest answers. Paint a very clear picture of the bad things that will happen without sufficient time. Manage expectations. And don't be afraid to walk away from the project.

Ultimately, it's the producer who's on the hook for the repercussions listed above. His or her reputation is on the line, not the clients'. In fact, in short-deadline situations, clients usually vanish. They only show up when the deadline arrives. And despite your very best efforts to bring the project in on-time, on-budget, and with high quality, you'll probably fail. You can never underestimate the value of time on the planning and pre-production side.

One of my oldest and wisest clients often recalls what one of his clients once told him. "There's never time to do it right. But there's always time to do it over."