Speed, The Sacrificial Criteria

There are times that speed is necessary. You have deadlines to meet, clients to keep happy and bills that have due dates.

However, sometimes you have to look at the other criteria for whatever you’re working on. This is because, depending on the project or the client, there may be other absolutes to which speed must take a back seat.

Common Scenarios

Whether you’re in charge of web design, search engine optimization, social media, or the day to day running of your business, you have encountered clients that require certain things on their project. When working on your own projects you have standards that you set for yourself. The most common are:

• Quality
• Relevancy
• Serves a purpose

There are sometimes more specific needs for a customer, but you are aware of them when they’re present.

In regard to web design, this may be a site element within the design. For SEO, this may be a struggle of deciding whether to attach to a particular keyword. As far as social media, this might be the tweets, or Instagram posts you are trying to schedule out.

Remember:

• You can’t sacrifice quality for speed.
• You can’t sacrifice relevancy for speed.
• You can’t sacrifice the purpose for speed.

Why Not?

If you do anything for speed’s sake the other criteria take a hit.

Can you put out a quality piece of work without all the time required?

If you don’t give yourself the time to do the research needed do you actually know if you’re meeting relevancy requirements?

Have you had time to figure out if the purpose is met if you have limited time to evaluate?

Speed: The Unspoken Criteria

Of course, you want to do your best for your customer or your business. Quick turnaround means the difference between dollars and pennies.

That said, Speed needs to take a back seat sometimes. This is a tough concept but, fear not, I have a solution for you. Stick with me here.

Speed Expectations

You know how long things take to do. Your customer might think they know how long it takes you to do something. Usually, the assumption is that you can meet their quality, relevancy, and set purpose standards in what they think you can fulfill.

SURPRISE! Those time frames don’t always match.

The Solution: Communication

If you’re in good communication with your client, or you’re managing your own projects well, you and those involved should have a clear picture of how long things will take to complete.

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