I said no

A user asked me to build a feature last month. Not huge. Maybe a week of work. My instinct was to say yes like I always do.

But I looked at my roadmap, looked at what I was already behind on, and just said no. I explained why it didn't fit right now. I braced for them to leave.

They replied "totally understand, thanks for being honest."

Then they renewed the next week.

I've spent two years saying yes to everything, building myself into exhaustion, and the users I was trying to please just kept asking for more. The first time I held a boundary, the user respected me more.

I don't know if this is a pattern or if I got lucky with one reasonable person. But it's making me rethink every feature request I've ever said yes to out of fear.

Have you ever said no to a user and had it go better than expected? Or did it blow up? Trying to figure out if boundaries actually work or if I just got lucky.

Story from my fried...