(no subject)

[unicornduke]

 I'm helping make a survey for work and in the start of the survey, the respondents pick 3 crops out of a list of 50. The sets of questions are identical for each crop, and on Monday, I finished up the set of questions, sent it out for edits and got one thing back. I said, anything else before I start duplicating the questions? No, they said. 

So I spent five hours yesterday, duplicating the question block, changing each crop name in the question set and getting the survey flow set. 

And then yesterday afternoon, one of the people came back with two question edits. So now I need to change each question, in each crop block individually, which is what I was trying to avoid by sending out the question info before that. I had told them the process too. 

Just another 100 question edits to go! 

So I'm grumpy. 

Comments

[graydon]

The temptation to tell them "no, you missed the deadline for changes" has to exist?

Probably not something you can actually do, alas.

[unicornduke]

No, I can't tell them that although I wanted to.

What I could tell them was that I needed any other changes by today at 1 because I'm in the field until mid next week. I think they want the survey out before then, so either the changes need to come in today or the one other person with permissions has to do all the changes and I don't think that person has much tolerance for lots of fiddling. They can push back for sure.

[graydon]

Sounds like the optimal approach given your circumstances.

It's a general problem with feedback deadlines and content in pretty much any line of business. Lots of people take them as some kind of hierarchy issue, which is wildly unhelpful.