When working on a much needed update, or new feature for my users it is very hard to get the rest of my team to not spill the beans. Of course, they mostly wonder why I am so secretive and the answer is – expectations.

Why I Stay Secretive
I found that when my group announces that we are actively working on something, no matter what we say, an expectation is immediately set. It can vary from how the feature actually works, how it was implemented, or when it will be implemented. Then you get questions, and people bugging you non-stop when you are going to release it. It becomes a mess, one that I don’t like dealing with. So when a co-worker casually stated that they would discuss the changes in a upcoming meeting, I couldn’t help but scream “Don’t tell them yet!” Good thing, because that was 2 weeks ago.

So What Is This About?
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on such an update for our users. This update introduces a new look, news feed, tips section, integrated wiki search and a few other things I can’t say. It is all part of my rescue mission to improve communication and to make things easier to find.

And When Will You Tell Them?
Monday. The update went out after 90% of the people left for home. It looks beautiful and best of all, it is 100 times more useful to me now and I hope that starting Monday it will be useful to everyone else. So by the time users have it and to the time we officially announce it, they will know how everything works. Therefore, I get away scott-free with no questions.

Maybe next time I will announce that my group will announce an exciting new announcement as some point in the future?