Here’s a clear example of a situation where situation and timing both matter , and how to identify it.

Direct answer

An example of when situation and timing matter together is launching a new software feature right before a major holiday shopping season.

  • The situation is that users and systems will be under very heavy load, expectations are high, and there’s little room for failure.
  • The timing (right before the rush) makes any bug or outage much more serious than if the exact same feature were released during a quiet period.

So the same feature release can be a good idea or a terrible idea depending on both what’s going on (situation) and when you do it (timing).

Mini breakdown with a simple illustration

Imagine you’re a project manager for an online store.

  • Situation: Black Friday week, record-high traffic expected, marketing has already sent millions of promo emails.
  • Decision: Release a brand‑new checkout feature.
  • Timing risk: If you deploy 24 hours before Black Friday and something breaks, you could lose a huge amount of revenue and customer trust.
  • Contrast: If you deploy the same feature two weeks earlier, during low traffic, you have time to find and fix issues with minimal impact.

Here, the example of situation and time working together is:

“Releasing a major change to a critical system right before a high‑stakes event (e.g., sale, product launch, exam period, big presentation), where the context makes the timing much riskier than usual.”

Other quick examples

You can often “spot” these by asking: If I moved this same action to another time, would the impact change a lot?

  1. Sending critical feedback
    • Situation: A teammate just had a public failure and is very stressed.
    • Bad timing: Criticizing them immediately in front of others.
    • Better timing: Waiting for a calmer moment and giving feedback privately.
  2. Announcing an organizational change at work
    • Situation: The company just announced layoffs.
    • Bad timing: Releasing more unsettling news the same day, when emotions are high.
    • Better timing: After people have had information and support, with clear context and reassurance.
  3. Doing maintenance on a hospital IT system
    • Situation: Emergency department is at peak capacity.
    • Bad timing: Scheduling a system shutdown for that same peak period.
    • Better timing: Low‑admission hours with backup procedures ready.

In all of these, it’s not only what you do, but when you do it that determines whether it’s wise.

How to identify such examples in questions

If you’re answering a test or interview question like “identify the example of when situation and timing matter,” look for options where:

  • The context (exam week, peak season, crisis, big event) is clearly high‑stakes.
  • The same action would be much safer or more effective at a different time.
  • The outcome depends strongly on both the surrounding conditions and the moment chosen.

If you share the exact answer choices you’re working with, I can help you pick which one best shows situation and timing interacting.