Note to future self: Beware of fake urgency

Leaders often create a "blitz" mode where a team works round-the-clock on a project that is presented as urgent. The story starts with a friend describing how a startup forced everyone to work 24/7 until a deadline was met, then began using the same tactic even when the work was neither urgent nor important. This manufactured urgency delivered short-term results but left the team exhausted and the trust between engineers and leadership broken.

A concrete example comes from Snaptu, where the CEO demanded a Facebook-only version of their app in two weeks. The team pulled an all-night sprint, shipped the feature, and later the company was acquired by Facebook. The success was real because the goal was tied to a tangible reward. When urgency is fake, the promised reward disappears, leaving the effort wasted and morale damaged.

Fake urgency works because good teams will rally and deliver, but the cost is hidden. When leadership repeatedly inflates importance, engineers stop believing future deadlines, which corrodes the culture and makes genuine crises harder to solve. Trust, once lost, is hard to rebuild and slows future delivery.

The takeaway for technical leaders is to reserve all-hands blitzes for truly high-impact work with clear stakes. Communicate real priorities, avoid inventing pressure, and protect team health. By keeping urgency honest, you preserve morale, maintain credibility, and ensure that when real emergencies arise, the team will respond effectively.