Julia, Oct 5: "do a study just on the small tile, it should dynamically update the numbers if things come earlier." Today the tile is a fixed plan: the date on it is always launch + 6 weeks, whatever actually happens. This study makes it react. Pick what happened below, drag the day, and watch six versions of the tile respond.
"The small tile" is read here as the Campaign timeline card at the top of the Dashboard's right rail. The same number also shows on the campaign card of the overview ("first content expected the week of..."), so the rule feeds both.
All of it is Proposed. Nothing here is agreed yet.
Campaign 1, launched Sep 10 with 10 creators. Planned: creators accepted by day 7, first product arrived by day 21, first draft by day 35, first post by day 42 (the week of Oct 19), last posts by day 56 (Nov 4).
One forecast, two places. The campaign card on the Campaigns overview carries the same "first content expected" as the tile.
Julia, Oct 5: "Could we have an 'Early' tile when things landed early? What would be the best way to communicate that?" and then: "I like the small Oct 19 crossed, but would like to just have a tag that says early next to it." That is H below, and it is now version C in the playground. The other four are the places the tag could have gone instead. Same controls as above (the black bar follows you down the page).
| Way | What the brand reads | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|
| H | Tag beside the date | "This date is early." New date, small crossed-out old date, then the tag. The word sits on the thing it describes. | Julia's pick · Oct 5 One glance, no legend. |
| I | Tag in the card's head | "The timeline is early." | Far from the date, and it brings back the head pill removed on Oct 1. |
| J | Tinted tile | The whole card has changed state. | Loud for a date that moved a week, and awkward to un-tint if the date steps back to plan. |
| K | On the line | A tick for where the plan said you would be, with the fill past it. | Precise, but it needs a legend, and the same tick with the fill behind it would read as late. |
| L | Its own tile | A small celebration above the timeline. | The right tone, the wrong place: it takes a slot in the rail. The same sentence works as the Recent activity note (version G). |
| No tile at all | Katie's team says it in the weekly text: "Good news, product arrived early, so first content is now expected the week of Oct 12." | The version with no build. Worth doing now, whatever ships later. |
| Wording | Problem or strength | |
|---|---|---|
| Early | Always true when shown. The crossed-out date next to it shows by how much, and the line under it gives the days ("Product arrived 7 days early."), so the tag does not have to. | Julia · Oct 5 |
| 1 week early | Can overstate. The date is shown by week, so a gain of 4 or 5 days can flip the week and the tag would claim a full one. Try "Creators approved fast". | |
| 7 days early | Exact, but it repeats the line under it, and on days when the week has not changed it tags a date that is not early. | |
| Ahead of plan | Invites its twin, "Behind plan". "Early" has no natural opposite on the tile: when nothing is early the tag is simply absent. |
| Shows | While the week on the tile is earlier than the week promised at launch. After the first post, if it went live before the planned day: "First content went live · Oct 15" keeps the tag as a fact. | Proposed |
| Does not show | When a step was early by a few days but the week has not changed. The line under the date still says "Creators accepted 3 days early." | Proposed |
| Goes away | If the date steps back to the planned week. No replacement, no "late" twin. | Proposed |
| Where else | The campaign card on the overview, after "first content expected the week of...". Same tag, same rule. | Proposed |
| Colour | Production's green pill, the one used for Completed. Nothing new to design. | Proposed |
The plan is the dates the tile already draws. The change: when the first creator reaches a step early, the start of what follows moves earlier. The ends do not move, because the other creators are still on the usual clock.
# on top of the existing rule: first_content_expected_on = launch_date + 42 days PLAN_DAY = { first_delivery: 21, first_draft: 35, first_post: 42 } # reached_on(m) = the day the FIRST creator got there latest = last of the three reached ahead = PLAN_DAY[latest] - (reached_on(latest) - launch_date) # days; negative = late shift = [ahead, 0].max # never later than the plan first_content_expected_on = first_post_reached ? reached_on(:first_post) : launch_date + 42 - shift # phase windows in the full timeline phase.starts_on = reached ? reached_on(phase) : planned_start - shift # the front moves phase.ends_on = planned_end # the tail never does campaign_ends_on = launch_date + 56 # unchanged # recomputed only when one of the three moments happens, never day by day
Follows the scenario picked in the playground, under the recommended rule.
| Milestone | Planned | Happened | Ahead | Tile then says |
|---|
Julia, Oct 5: "even if one of the creators get their product early, others may still have theirs ship normally so it shouldn't change the tail end." So the first creator sets "first content expected", and the plan sets every end date. In the full timeline an early campaign shows wider windows that overlap (Ship still runs to Sep 30 while Film has already started), and the last day is the same as at launch.
The RULE switch in the playground shows all three. They only differ when a campaign is early at one step and less early, or late, at the next.
| Rule | What it does | Where it breaks | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Follow the latest milestone, never later than the plan | The date is always the best current estimate, and it never goes past the date first shown at launch. | It can step back toward the plan: 7 days ahead when the first product arrives, 2 days ahead when the first draft comes in. Try "Early, then filming drags". | Recommended |
| Only ever earlier | Once the date has moved earlier it never moves back. | It keeps a date it no longer believes. In the same scenario it still says the week of Oct 12 when the first post is now due the 20th. | |
| Fully live | Earlier and later, always the honest estimate. | It shows lateness, which Tony took out on Sep 8. Try "Shipping late". | Tony |
| Version | What the brand notices | Cost | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Plan only (today) | Nothing. The date is right at launch and never again. | None | The baseline. It undersells every campaign that runs fast. |
| B | Quiet swap | The date is earlier than last time, if they remember last time. | The rule only | The smallest first version. Honest, but the good news is easy to miss. |
| C | Swap, cross out, tag Early | The new date, a small crossed-out old date, a green Early tag, and one line: "Product arrived 7 days early." | The rule + a tag + one line of copy per milestone | Julia's pick · Oct 5 The date changes and the brand sees at a glance that it got better. |
| D | Ahead chip | "7 days ahead" next to an unchanged date. | The rule + a chip | Julia liked the chip, with the word Early instead. That is now the tag in C. On its own, D leaves the old date on the tile. |
| E | The 8 shrinks | "Week 3 of 7": the campaign itself got shorter. | None, it is out | Ruled out and removed from the playground. The end of the campaign does not move when a creator is early (Julia, Oct 5), so there is nothing to shrink. |
| F | Countdown | "In about 3 weeks", "in 9 days", "any day now". | The rule + relative dates | Changes every day by itself, so a real jump is invisible. Brands plan with dates. |
| G | The rail tells | The tile swaps quietly and Recent activity carries the news: "Product arrived 7 days early · first content is now expected the week of Oct 12." | The rule + one activity note per milestone | Pairs well with C. Recent activity is where brands already look for what changed. |
The suggested build: B first, then C on the tile (Julia's pick) with G's note in Recent activity.
| Case | What happens | |
|---|---|---|
| Early by a few days only | The date is shown by week, so 1 to 3 days ahead often lands in the same week and the date does not change. The reason line in C still appears. That is a feature: the tile does not twitch. | Proposed |
| Early, then less early | The date steps back toward the plan, never past it. C drops the old reason and shows the new one. | Proposed |
| A step runs late | The tile holds the original date and shows no reason line. Once that week passes with nothing live, the date on the tile is in the past. | Tony: lateness |
| The campaign's month name | Does not move. The name is frozen at launch (Julia, Oct 2), even if first content now lands in the month before. | Julia · Oct 2 |
| "Week 4 of 8" | Stays a calendar count from launch. Being ahead changes dates, not the week number. | Proposed |
| The progress line and "Now" | They follow the furthest of the calendar and the first creator. If the first product has arrived in week 3, the tile already says Film. | Proposed |
| The full timeline (expanded) | A phase a first creator opened early shows its real start and "Started N days early." Its end stays on plan, so windows get wider and overlap. Nothing ever "ends early". | Julia · Oct 5 |
| The end of the campaign | Never moves earlier. "After week 8" still starts Nov 5 however early the first post was. | Julia · Oct 5 |
| Creators accept early | The progress line moves on to Ship. The date does not change and there is no Early tag yet. | Proposed |
| First post before the forecast | The fact replaces the forecast the same day: "First content went live · Oct 10". | Proposed |
| The first creator then goes quiet | The date was moved by someone who then stalls. At the next moment (first draft) the rule follows whoever is first by then, and the date may step back toward the plan. | Proposed |
| The brand ships its own orders | Same rule. A brand that ships fast sees the date move, which is the nudge we want. | Proposed |
| Local and gift card campaigns | No tile, so nothing to move (months are product only, Julia Oct 1). | Julia · Oct 1 |
Familiar patterns, recalled rather than captured for this study, so treat them as direction and not evidence.
| Parcel tracking | One date, replaced when it changes, with a short status next to it ("arriving early", "delivery date updated"). The closest match to version C. |
| Flight status | Scheduled time struck through, new time beside it, and a word: early or delayed. The struck-through plan is what makes the gain readable. |
| Ride and food delivery | A countdown that updates constantly. It works for minutes, where nobody plans around the number. A campaign is planned in weeks. |
| Project tools | "Ahead of schedule" and "behind schedule" badges on a fixed plan. The badge pair is the trap in version D. |
| Question | What the study assumes | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Keep the line under the date ("Product arrived 7 days early.")? | Yes. Julia's "just a tag" may mean without it; the switch in the Early section shows both. | Julia |
| Also add the note in Recent activity (G)? | Yes, as the place the news is announced once. | Julia |
| May the date step back toward the plan? | Yes, but never past the original date. | Julia |
| Is one early creator enough to move the date? | Yes: the first product, the first draft, the first post. The tail is protected, so only the first-content date depends on that one creator. | Julia |
| Should fast acceptance move the date too? | No. It moves the progress line only. | Julia |
| What does the tile say when a step is late? | It holds the plan and says nothing. | Tony |
| Do we have the day each creator reached each stage? | Yes, since the Dashboard's stage history shows dates. To confirm in the data. | Nisarg |
| Should the reason line ever credit the brand ("You shipped 5 days early")? | Not yet. It names what happened, not who did it. | Julia |