“I don’t like being disappointed, but I really hate being surprised” said Bill Finch, then Engineering manager at HP. I was a new product manager, in only my second job out of college, and was meeting with him to update him on the team’s progress. The news wasn’t good. We were going to need to delay the release, but we had enough time to react, communicate with our key stakeholders and re-adjust launch plans. I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news but knew that the sooner I told him, and everyone involved in the endgame, the better. It was a great lesson to learn so early on in my career. I’ve lived by his words many times since then and never regretted it.
When bad news can be a good thing
