What a director actually hears when you say 'it's nearly done'

I once told a director a platform migration was nearly done. I meant the build was complete and we had testing, a change window and a rollback plan still ahead of us. He heard a fortnight. He said so to a customer the following morning, and by the time I found out, my rough sense of progress had become somebody else's commitment.

Nothing about that was his fault. I had given him a feeling and he needed a number, so he supplied the number himself. That is what senior stakeholders do with vague language, every single time. They are not being unreasonable. They have to make decisions, and an imprecise answer from the person closest to the work still gets used as evidence.

The gap is not technical. Engineers talk in terms of work completed, because that is what we can see. Directors listen in terms of when they can act, because that is what they are accountable for. Both parties leave the conversation satisfied and holding entirely different information.

Phrases like nearly done, more or less there, and just tidying up all share the same defect. They describe effort rather than remaining risk. A migration with the build finished and no change window booked is not nearly done. It is waiting on the one thing nobody in the room controls.

The fix is unglamorous. Replace the feeling with three sentences: what is complete, what is outstanding, and what the outstanding part depends on. It takes ten seconds longer to say and removes most of the room for someone else to invent a date on your behalf.

I would never hand over a percentage or a feeling again. I would say what is finished, what is left, what it depends on, and the date I will next be able to narrow the estimate.

When you speak to a senior stakeholder, assume every phrase will be repeated without you in the room. Say the thing you would be comfortable seeing quoted back to you in six weeks.